Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 1: 11/12

な-AdjectiveAdjectives 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

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.

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 'very'. 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.

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'.

Related

Examples

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    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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