Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [adjectives]

形容詞・形容動詞. Japanese doesn't technically have adjectives, but special types of nouns and verbs called na-adjectives and i-adjectives respectively have the same function.

While Japanese does not technically have adjectives, this tag should be used for questions about the kinds of Japanese words that would typically translate as adjectives in English.

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Why does Japanese have two kinds of adjectives? (-i adjectives and -na adjectives)

Japanese has two kinds of adjectives known by several terms but the ones I know are i-adjectives and na-adjectives - why? I recall that Japanese adjectives are much more like verbs than in English and most European languages (where they are more…
hippietrail
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i-adjectives used as na-adjectives: is there a difference? (e.g. 大きい versus 大きな)

There are at the very least several i-adjectives can be used as na-adjectives by dropping the final い and adding な in its place. The most common examples of this, as far as I am aware, are 大きい and 小さい, which become 大きな and 小さな, respectively. For…
rintaun
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What is the difference between -さ and -み suffixes to make a noun out of an adjective?

For example, both 悲しさ and 悲しみ are glossed as “sadness” in JMdict. What's the difference? According to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, 〜み “is more emotive and concrete characterization of some state”, while 〜さ “describes, in an analytical…
pingish
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～うございます - keigo い-adjectives

I'm not sure if this is actual keigo, or just a polite form of adjectives. Anyway, there are several that we're all familiar with that are still used today. はやい　→　おはようございます ありがたい　→　ありがとうございます めでたい　→　おめでとうございます There are a couple of others I've…
istrasci
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What exactly is a "taru adjective"

On the talk page of the Wikipedia article on "Japanese adjectives", user Dougalg suggested nearly two years ago: I know these are falling out of use, but still exist. If anyone can give an explanation of the taru adjectives, I'm sure that would be…
hippietrail
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Adjectives functioning both as イ- and ナ-adjective

This question has made me think about the class of adjectives, which can function both as イ- and as ナ-adjective, e.g. 大きい 大きな 小さい 小さな 真っ白い 真っ白な (etc.) 細かい 細かな 暖かい 暖かな 四角い 四角な (etc.) 柔らかい 柔らかな In my (non-)answer to the question, I…
Earthliŋ
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When would you use 新{あら}たな and 新{あたら}しい

To say new, the first way that I learned is to use the i-adjective 新しい. But I noticed that the na-adjective 新たな is used a lot in written texts. Is there any difference in when either is used?
Nap
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Usage of ～じゃん (～じゃない)

I'd like to know if I can put ～じゃん at the end of every adjective, if there are any exceptions to that usage, and if it's different from ～じゃない. Adj (na) + じゃん 便利じゃん 便利だったじゃん 便利じゃないじゃん 便利じゃなかったじゃん Adj (i) +…
daniel tomio
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What is the difference between "〜がる" and "〜がっている"

I want to know the difference between 〜がる and 〜がっている, and in what situations I can use them. My friend said 〜がる is used for a regular activity that someone does every day or every week, and the person also wants to do that activity. 〜がっている is used…
A-letubby
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When would you use 低い【ひくい】 vs 短い【みじかい】

Are 低い and 短い interchangable or do they have specific uses?
elasticrat
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Is there an order of adjectives in Japanese?

In English, if we have multiple adjectives modifying a noun, there is a preferred order for those adjectives, for example: nice long red car *nice red long car *long red nice car I was wondering if there are similar restrictions in Japanese. For…
Lou
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What exactly does an adjective stem + そう mean?

The other day I posted a picture of some food on Facebook, and I noticed that all of my Japanese friends were saying 「おいしそう」. I made a good guess to what it meant, but I wasn't certain what exactly they were saying. I've seen this stem+そう with other…
Miguel
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Relative clauses distinguishing whom/with which/that

I love in Japanese, how adjectival clauses are just added in front of nouns like adjectives. The pizza that I ate = 私が食べたピザ But last night I became confused... In english we have words to link the clause to the main sentence (my grammar knowledge…
rewolf
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What is ~げに suffix actually?

Today, while looking up random words in WWWJDIC, I stumbled upon an example sentence for the word いとしい as below: 少女は人形をいとしげに抱き締めた。 The girl squeezed her doll affectionately. The sentence uses ~げに adjective suffix that I have never seen before.…
Lukman
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いAdjective. difference between くて and く

Is it 太陽光線は暖かいけどまぶしく、肌に刺すようです or 太陽光線は暖かいけどまぶしくて、肌に刺すようです What's the difference between くて and く?
Apple
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