Structure
Noun + が + 嫌い
嫌い + な + Noun
Details
Part of Speech
Noun
Word Type
Adjectival Noun
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Standard
About きらい
嫌い, meaning 'to dislike', is one of the very common な-Adjectives in Japanese that is used in many different expressions. All な-Adjectives behave similarly to verbs, in that their form changes depending on what comes after them.
For 嫌い, it will be followed by either な, when acting as an adjective, だ, or the more polite です, when acting as a noun. This distinction is made depending on whether it is linked to another noun, or is independent.
In the example with だ, 嫌い is expressing that the thing is 'dislikable' (assertion). However, in the example with な, 嫌い is expressing 'being disliked' as a quality of the noun it is attached to.
In the same way that 好き can often be partnered with 大 to mean 'love', 嫌い can often be partnered with 大 to mean 'hate'.
Caution
Despite ending in い, 嫌い is one of the few words that is actually a な-Adjective, and needs to be memorized.
Antonyms
Examples
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パイナップルが嫌い?
Do you dislike pineapple?
うん、大嫌いだ。
Yeah, I hate it.
嫌いな食べ物がありますか。
Is there a food that you dislike?
はい、納豆が嫌いです。
Yes, I dislike natto.
嫌いな色はありません。
There is no color that I dislike.
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Nihongo Master
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[DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Page 190
Genki I 2nd Edition
Page 134
みんなの日本語 I
Page 62 [CH 9]
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きらい – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (20 in total)
Pushindawood
dislike, not fond of
Structure
- Noun + が + 嫌い
- 嫌い + な + Noun
View on Bunpro
While きらい ends in an い, it is a な-adjective
[大嫌い(だいきらい) can be used to express hate]
MatzBlanc
Hey! I just reviewed “Dislike/kirai” and this sentence popped up
パイナップルがきらい?
I just wanted to know why there is no か at the end, since it seems to be a question.
Thank you!
Pushindawood
@MatzBlanc Hey! Just like in English, you can make a Japanese sentence a question with a rising intonation at the end. So, this sentence would be pronounced: パイナップル(が)きらい? Just to note, you can certainly add ですか to make the sentence more polite or add the explanatory の at the end (きらいなの?). Adding just か to きらい, while grammatically correct, will come off as rude in many situations (don’t use it with your superiors!). Cheers!
MatzBlanc
Thanks!
That helps a lot!
lu21an
I do not understand why it is 「パイナップルが きらい?」 instead of 「パイナップルが きらいだ?」. Since きれい is a な-adjective, I was expecting a だ at the end of the sentence. Why is it omitted?
Lamster
Unless I’m missing something, it’s simply omitted because native speakers often omit it when speaking casually. Technically, it’s ungrammatical but everybody does it so we have to be aware of it.
だ is often omitted in casual spoken and written Japanese because it’s super clear from the context.
If I ask someone “大丈夫?” (Okay?), I am obviously asking if they are OK (which would be “大丈夫だ?”).
There is nothing else that I could be asking so I might as well drop the だ.We do the same in English when we ask “you okay?” There’s no way that we could be asking anything but “are you okay?”
lu21an
It’s what I was expecting but I wasn’t really sure about it. Thanks for making it clear!
Lamster
No problem! By the way, for anyone who’s interested:
I was always puzzled by 嫌い because it looks like an い adjective but is actually a noun (“な adjective”, adjectival noun).
Only recently did I discover that there’s a verb spelled 嫌う【きらう】 that means “to dislike, to hate”! So 嫌い is spelled like that because it’s the noun version of 嫌う! (Just like 遊ぶ【あそぶ】play (Verb)→遊び play, playing (Noun))
This might seem obvious to you but it was a revelation to me so I’m posting it in hopes of helping others.
nekoyama
Also, 好き is the noun version of 好く
This is what happens when you teach people that random words are adjectives because they translate to adjectives in English…
Lamster
Yes! That’s exactly what happens! Wish they wouldn’t do that…
I keep seeing explanations for omitting such basic stuff in educational material that look something like this: “well, the important thing is to get you speaking; you’ll learn those details at some point, so just memorize it for now.”
But it’s not that simple! I can memorize it alright, but doing so leaves me with a broken understanding of how the damn language works in the first place. It’s not like it’d take ages to explain. A couple of sentences would suffice.
ilyakamens
Hi, I just got the following sentence:
彼は漢字が きらいだ けど、文法が好き
Apparently だ is required after 嫌い in some cases, but it’s unclear when. The grammar point makes no mention of だ AFAICT. Here’s all the info I see:
Pushindawood
@ilyakamens Hi! The rule more applies to how けど interacts with all な-adjectives, not just きらい. The hint that you should have gotten is “Nouns/な-adjectives need something before が or けど.” If you follow the Bunpro order, the けど grammar point appears just before the きらい grammar point and outlines that だ is required after a noun/な-adjective and before けど. While there are some edge cases where you can separate きらい and けど with a comma or even find them uttered together in casual speech, it is best practice to use だ after a な-adjective and before けど. Cheers!
ilyakamens
Ah. I must have forgotten. Thank you for the through explanation!
BunLess78
Isn’t Kirai closer to hate, as opposed to amari suki?
I was taught not to say Kirai in this situation unless I felt very strongly about it, and even then only if I was with friends. In a business situation it may come off too heated or accidentally comedic, yes?
rkharji
Hi,
Regarding this sentence:
" エレンのお母さんが作る朝ごはんが大嫌い"
Why is the particle が used twice here? Is it possible to change the first instance to の.
Thank you!
skullclutter
The first が is part of a subclause that describes the breakfast, and the second が is used for the main thought of the sentence. “作る” isn’t a noun, so it wouldn’t make sense to use “の” here.
casual
It’s not that it’s impossible to change お母さんが作る朝ごはん to お母さんの作る朝ごはん, since が to の substitution in subordinate clauses is pretty standard.
But now you’d end up with two の in a row, and is it really any prettier than two が?rkharji
Thanks for the explanation .
rkharji
Ah I get it. Thanks for clearing it up .
bruhks
I am a little confused about kirai v.s. daikirai, in this example " エレンのお母さんが作る朝ごはんが大____。" the hint is looking for “hate”, but the correct answer is just kirai. Does this end up depending on context (e.g. you don’t really HATE breakfast?)
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