1

I encountered the word here: 世界で色んな人が食べ物がないから、食べ物を捨ててはならない!と子供の頃から両親 が教えてくれた。

and the 'adjectival' definition in https://jisho.org/search/%E8%89%B2%E3%82%93%E3%81%AA

Edit: Both @Leebo 's and @Aeon Akechi 's answers did answer my question and were rich of useful information. But I accepted the longest answer.

raruna
  • 351
  • 1
  • 11
  • 1
    I think they mean "pre-noun adjectival" as one term. It corresponds to "attributive" in the English grammar. – broccoli facemask Aug 29 '20 at 00:52
  • Do these answer your question: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1853/9831 / https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/6694/9831 / https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/41544/9831 – Chocolate Aug 29 '20 at 01:13

2 Answers2

4

It cannot be used as a predicate. It can only come before a noun to directly modify it, the way that it modifies 人 in the sentence you provided.

So you cannot end a sentence with things like

✕～が色んなです。
✕～は色んな。

Things that are described as adjectives can of course directly modify a word, but they can also be used as a predicate. For instance, the related word いろいろ is a な adjective.

So you can say いろいろな～ or you can say ～がいろいろだ

Leebo
  • 2,840
  • 1
  • 9
  • 12
2

I think it's because 色ん can't stand its own without な. One can say 「世界には色んな人がいる」, but not 「世界にいる人は色んだ」. (Similar to 小さな, 大きな, おかしな)

Angelos
  • 10,502
  • 1
  • 27
  • 60