Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 4: 3/13

な-Adjective + (Noun)Describing a noun

Structure

［な］Adjective + な + Noun

Examples:
静(しず)か + な + 夜(よる)
元気(げんき) + な + 子供(こども)

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Expression

  • Word Type

    Noun

  • Register

    Standard

About な-Adjective + Noun

In Japanese, almost any type of word can be attached to the beginning of a noun to modify the meaning, or describe the qualities of that noun. However, depending on the type of word used, conjugation rules will differ slightly.

For な-Adjectives, they will always need to be followed by な, when used before a noun. This means that adjective (A) is describing qualities/features of noun (B).

Caution

Many words can take either な or の when describing a noun. The difference in meaning is usually clear. Let's take a look at both nuances.

(A) な (B) means that - (A) is a quality/feature of (B)

(A) の (B) means that - (A) is the type/purpose of (B)

To avoid making this mistake when using な-Adjectives to describe a noun, it can be helpful to think about whether you are describing a 'quality', or the 'purpose' of something.

Related

Misc.

Examples

--:--

    暇(ひま)な一日(いちにち)。

    A free day.

    旭(あさひ)が丘(おか)は静(しず)かな街(まち)です。

    Asahigaoka is a quiet town.

    たなかさんは親切(しんせつ)な人(ひと)だ。

    Tanaka-san is a kind person.

    これは便利(べんり)なツールです。

    This is a convenient tool.

    綺麗(きれい)なタオルはトイレにある。

    There are clean towels in the bathroom.

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      な-Adjective + Noun – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (5 in total)

      • SpectralVulpine

        SpectralVulpine

        Ahh, ok. I didn’t realize の worked that way. So instead of this…

        (大切なベンおじさん)の言葉

        It’s closer to this?

        大切な(ベンおじさんの言葉)

        I’ll have to keep an eye out for that kind of pattern in the future
        Thank you for the reply!

      • byrd9999

        byrd9999

        Hi,
        I came to post the same question.

        I have read the above explanation, but i don’t think “no” is acting like a nominaliser for two reasons .

        1. Uncle Ben is already a noun and doesn’t need nominalising.
        2. The “no” is more likely referring to the words as being Uncle Ben’s.

        DeepL also translates the sentence as being the words of dear Uncle Ben. Not that this is the final word in translation, but it seems that is the most obvious one.

        There is no further explanation regarding this sentence in Bunpro, where it is the only sentence in this entry where the adj+na is not directly in front of what it is modifying.

        Either this is a confusing translation, or is it just wrong?

      • Chihiro

        Chihiro

        Hi @byrd9999 ! This の wouldn’t be a nominalizer but rather be a possessive marker as you mentioned.

        Depending on the context, we can interpret it as either ‘Those are Uncle Ben’s important words’ or ‘Those are dear Uncle Ben’s words’. That said, without additional context, the more common interpretation feels like the former, with the な-adjective 大切な modifying the noun phrase ベンおじさんの言葉. This is because 大切な言葉 is a more natural collocation than 大切なベンおじさん. If you want to say ‘dear Uncle Ben’, you would normally add 私の to 大切な to make it clear, like 私の大切なベンおじさん.

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