Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 1: 10/12

い-AdjectiveAdjectives ending in い

い-Adjectives cannot be used with だ

Structure

おおきい, おいしい, はやい

Details

  • Adjective

  • Independent Word

  • Standard

About い-Adjectives

In Japanese, い-Adjectives are known as 'form containing words', and are used to describe nouns. All い-Adjectives end in い in their base form.

As mentioned, all い-Adjectives end in い in their base form. However, not all words ending in い are い-Adjectives. Let's take a look at some of the words that are commonly mistaken for い-Adjectives.

In addition to きらい above, there is also きれい. きれい actually comes from the kanji structure 綺麗(きれい), with い being part of the kanji itself. This is never the case with い-Adjectives, where the い will always be outside of the kanji. Due to the kanji for 綺麗(きれい) being somewhat difficult, this word is often written in hiragana or katakana, which leads to confusion for learners. Unfortunately there is no rule for distinguishing which words ending in い are not い-Adjectives, but thankfully, there are not very many of them, so it won't be long before you become familiar with them.

Caution

Unlike な-Adjectives, い-Adjectives must never be followed by だ. This is due to だ only being able to conjugate with nouns (which な-Adjectives originally are). Instead, です is used with い-Adjectives to make them sound more polite.

Fun Fact

Although using です with い-Adjectives is very common, it is actually incorrect Japanese. As です is simply a polite variation of だ, it follows all of the same conjugation rules as だ. This means that it should only be attached to nouns and な-Adjectives. However, as most Japanese natives do not know this rule, it is widely considered natural to use.

Related

Misc.

Examples

--:--

    暑(あつ)いです。

    It is hot.

    今日(きょう)は暑(あつ)いです。

    It is hot today.

    寒(さむ)いです。

    It is cold.

    これは楽(たの)しいです。

    This is fun.

    新(あたら)しい車(くるま)。

    A new car.

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い-Adjectives – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (43 in total)

  • chromakey

    chromakey

    In the audio for 田中さんの車は古いです, I hear を instead of は. Does anyone else hear it that way or do I just need more listening exposure like the poster above?

  • Kraft

    Kraft

    I heard it too and bugged me. (I’m a noob, no idea why it sounds so weak here and close to を when it’s usually pretty distinct for me even in rapid speech in my very limited experience.)

  • Asher

    Asher

    @chromakey @Kraft I just took a listen to this one (both with external speakers and with headphones) and it is definitely は. It is very weak though, and links immediately into the ふ of the next word. Kinda sounds a bit like ‘afo’.

    Sometimes we get these rerecorded if they sound unnatural, but in this case I think it is pretty good listening practice, especially considering it is in a short sentence that finishes with an adjective+です, so there’s no way a を could possibly exist in the sentence in the first place.

    Totally understand the frustration though. We’ve all been there

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