Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 3: 13/13

い-Adjective (Past)Was, Were (Past tense)

い-Adjectives, whether positive or negative, cannot be used with だ

Structure

［い］Adjective［い］+ かった

Examples
おもしろい + かった
新(あたら)しい + かった

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Adjective

  • Word Type

    Auxiliary Verb

  • Register

    Standard

About い-Adjective (Past)

In order to create the past form of い-Adjectives, you must add the auxiliary verb た to the 'past' conjunction form of the い-Adjective. The past conjunction form is created by removing the い and replacing it with かっ. This structure is equivalent to 'was' in English.

面白(おもしろ)い - 'Interesting' in its base (dictionary form).

面白(おもしろ)かっ - The conjugation form used with た (and several other auxiliary verbs).

From these examples, we can see how the casual past form is constructed. In modern Japanese, simply adding です after た is considered to be the standard polite past form.

Caution

Although this is considered to be polite by most people, using です after かった is not academically correct Japanese. However, considering how common its usage has become, it may be used in almost any situation confidently.

Examples

--:--

    寒(さむ)かった。

    It was cold.

    それは、高(たか)かった。

    That was expensive.

    田中(たなか)さんは強(つよ)かったです。

    Tanaka-san was strong.

    私(わたし)の姉(あね)の家(いえ)が古(ふる)かったです。

    My (older) sister's house was old.

    動物園(どうぶつえん)は楽(たの)しかった。

    The zoo was fun.

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い-Adjective (Past) – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (3 in total)

  • NoHiddenCosts

    NoHiddenCosts

    If using “です” after “かった” is not “academically correct Japanese”, what is?

  • Kasasagi

    Kasasagi

    Using “かった” without “です”, that is, ending the sentence with “～かった。” is considered “academically correct Japanese”.

    (Sorry for necroing this apparently unanswered question.)

  • casual

    casual

    I think the question was, what is then considered correct polite past form from Bunpro’s point of view. Surely a simple かった without です would be considered non-polite, so it cannot be that.

    Bunpro article on one hand instructs to use です, on the other hand seems to warn against using it, but then doesn’t give any alternative… Is this caution block even needed, especially at N5 level?

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