Amazing! Useful! Red?! Welcome to the World of Adjectives

In this Topic, we're going to learn how to describe things. We can show ownership and attributes with the particle の, or describe qualities with い-Adjectives and な-Adjectives.

By the end of this Topic, we will understand how to connect nouns to other nouns using の, and how to properly attach adjectives to them as well.

このトピックに出てくる文法

今すぐ学習する

の
Indicates possession
From the perspective of English, の has several different meanings. It can indicate possession, like putting (A)'s on the end of a word. In Japanese, however, the meaning is a bit broader, and shows that (B) is an attribute/possession of (A).
In the first sentence, we can see that の is showing ownership, however in the second sentence, it is simply showing a relationship between (A) and (B).

の is also often used in the same way as が, to highlight the subject of a statement. Our lesson for が will be covered separately.
Both of these examples are slightly advanced and use adjectives, but don't worry, we will be covering them next!

Caution

の is usually used after nouns, but can also be used after other types of words, specifically when it is transforming them into a noun-like phrase. This is called nominalization in English. We will cover this in detail in the の - Nominalization grammar point.
N5 文法
い-Adjectives
Adjectives ending in い
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.
N5 文法
な-Adjectives
Adjectives that are also nouns
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'.
N5 文法

詳細

Let's take a closer look at the mechanics of 'describing', and see the difference in nuance with some comparisons.

Red vs. Red

In Japanese, some concepts, like colors, can be expressed as either a noun or an い-Adjective. For example, 赤(あか) and 赤(あか)い (both meaning ‘red’). This means we have two ways to say the same thing!

While the meaning is often nearly identical, 赤(あか)い (い-Adjective) is much more common for simple descriptions. 赤(あか)の (noun plus の) tends to focus much more on identifying the category of the color red, such as identifying one item out of many similar ones (e.g., 'I'll take the red one').

Na! No?

As many な-Adjectives can also function as nouns, sometimes a な-Adjective can be used before a noun by using の. A perfect example of this is the word 特別(とくべつ), meaning 'special'.

特別(とくべつ) can change nuance depending if you use の or な. 特別(とくべつ)な tends to feel like a subjective description (like an adjective), while 特別(とくべつ)の tends to feel like an objective categorization (like a noun).

At this stage, it is not important to remember the specifics of these examples. Rather, it is important to be aware that although we try to make clean categories like い-Adjectives, な-Adjectives, and nouns which use の, sometimes Japanese words can be a little more flexible!