nihonbg4

Basic Grammer: LESSON 4

More on Adjectives

Well, it's finally come to this, learning how to conjugate adjectives in past tense. You didn't think you could survive on the present tense only, did you? What would happen if your friend came up and asked you 'how was class?' and you answered 'it is good'. I don't know about you, that would atleast raise my eyebrow.

To put 'i' adjectives in past tense, we simply remove the 'i' and replace it with 'katta'. Sound somewhat familiar? I hope so. Let's see what this looks like:

Yasashi(i)
          easy
Yasashikatta
                  was easy

Yes, it's exactly like what we saw in the previous chapter. Now, when you put an adjective that's in a sentence...do you put the sentence in past tense? The answer is... no! It may sound weird in English, but this is how it's played out in Japanese:

Shiken wa yasashikatta desu.
(the) test was easy.

Yes, 'desu' was used, not 'deshita'. This is a common mistake for a lot of beginners, but it doesn't have to be a problem for you! Here's a another example, to get the hang of it:

Kyou, tenki wa atsui desu.
               Today, (the) weather is hot

Kinou, tenki wa atsukatta desu.
                   Yesturday, (the) weather was hot.

So, how do we put 'na' adjectives in past form? Once again, the infamous 'noun' adjectives are treated like nouns!

Kare wa yuumei desu.
He is famous.
Kare wa yuumei deshita.
He was famous.

Lastly, how do you make an adjective both past and negative?
For 'i' adjectives, they're conjugated as negative adjectives, the placed into a negative-past tense sentence structure. Or in other words, just remove the 'i' and add '-ku arimasen deshita'.

Kyou, tenki wa atsuku arimasen.
                         Today, the weather isn't hot.

Kinou, tenki wa atsuku arimasen deshita.
                   Yesturday, the weather wasn't hot.

And as for 'na' adjectives (which I *cough* forgot *cough*) you simply treat them as nouns, as you have been all along! gee, this is getting repetitive. like so:

Kare wa yuumei deshita.
He was famous.
Kare wa yuumei arimasen deshita.
He wasn't famous.

So, that's it for adjectives! (for now) Hopefully, you can start feeling comfortable with them.

And as for homework, it's a creative assignment! As always, email me with your answers for at [email protected]
Also, if you feel uncomfortable with creative assignments, or just want more work (you wonderful masochist, you.) email me saying so and I'll be happy to create some structured problems like you saw in previous lessons.

The assignment, to come up with your own sentences for each of the conjugations for adjectives introduced. Use the scattered vocabulary around this site, or even better- an online dictionary. (Still, even better is your own dictionary, but if you don't have one, that's cool.) (tip: www.google.com is a great way to search...for anything.)
When creating your sentences, be sure to include your english translation, so I know that you know what you're talking about. It sure would be funny if you said 'My elephant is pink.' ...on the other hand....

Part I- create a sentence for each of the following conjugations using 'i' adjectives-

1.) Present Positive - __________________________________________________
2.) Present Negative-__________________________________________________
3.) Past Positive-_____________________________________________________
4.) Past Negative-_____________________________________________________

Part II- create a sentence for each of the following conjugations using 'na' adjectives-

1.) Present Positive - __________________________________________________
2.) Present Negative-__________________________________________________
3.) Past Positive-_____________________________________________________
4.) Past Negative-_____________________________________________________

Get it?
back to Japanese lesson 1
or
Japanese lesson 2
or even
Japanese Lesson 3

Go to Japanese Lesson 5!

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Everything on this page is written by me, yes, ME. it is therefore copyright(c) to Lynneigh McPherson, 2002. All rights reserved...blablabla so please be considerate. I actually worked on writing this...

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