Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 1: 11/12

な-Adjective

Adjectives that are also nouns

Some な-Adjectives can end in い

Structure

［な］Adjective + だ
［な］Adjective + な + Noun

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Noun

  • Word Type

    Adjectival Noun

  • Register

    Standard

  • 品詞

    名詞

  • 単語の種類

    形容動詞

  • 使用域

    一般

About な-Adjectives

In Japanese, the vast majority of な-Adjectives are originally nouns, and differ from nouns only in that they have their own set of conjugation rules. The dictionary form of a な-Adjective will always be followed by だ. な is only attached when describing another noun.
  • 魚(さかな)は大好(だいす)きだ。
    I love fish. (Fish are loved by me)
  • 大好(だいす)きな野菜(やさい)です。
    A vegetable that I love.
As we can see from these examples, だ or です is required at the end of a sentence, but な will be required when using a な-Adjective to describe a noun.
な-Adjectives are mostly words of foreign (Chinese/English) origin. This is why they have evolved to require unique conjugation rules.
Fun Fact
As a learner, it can be very difficult to identify what a な-Adjective is, compared to a regular noun. Nouns conjugate with の, while な-Adjectives conjugate with な. A very simple trick that Japanese children learn is using the adverb とても. If とても sounds natural with a word, then it is probably a な-Adjective, if it sounds unnatural, then the word is likely to be a regular noun.
  • とても綺麗(きれい)。
    Very pretty. (Natural in Japanese)
  • とても外(そと)。
    Very outside. (Unnatural in Japanese)
From this example, we can see that とても can be used to help identify な-Adjectives. Basically, this is due to adjectives being measurable 'very big', 'very small', while nouns are not measurable 'very dog', 'very boat'.

Examples

  • 綺麗(きれい)な絵(え)。

    A pretty painting.

  • 綺麗(きれい)な女(おんな)の人(ひと)。

    A pretty woman.

  • 暇(ひま)な一日(いちにち)。

    A free day.

  • 静(しず)かな部屋(へや)。

    A quiet room.

  • あれは綺麗(きれい)です。

    That over there is beautiful.

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な-Adjectives – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (11 in total)

  • gyroninja

    gyroninja

    About 2 years ago

    Andulien’s perspective of there always being a な is a nonstandard way of analyzing things. You could similarly say there is always a だ after な adjectives except in cases where there isn’t and that would be just as valid as his view.

    The standard way to look at it is that you just have the な adjective and then you add stuff based off how you use it.

  • Superpnut

    Superpnut

    About 2 years ago

    But he didn’t say there is always a な except when there isn’t…
    All he said is that there isn’t a な when the adjective is next to a verb.
    And I was showing appreciation because I was trying to figure out why there wasn’t a な
    Anyways it doesn’t matter I have some more basic grammar points to struggle to understand

  • gyroninja

    gyroninja

    About 2 years ago

    If you read his posts you can see he used words like “left off” and “omit.” And in the way he compares な adjectives to い adjectives, he makes me think that he believed that な adjectives have a な at the end of them.

    As mentioned earlier in the thread if you want to use a な adjective on a verb you need to use に after the な adjective instead of な.

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