N4 Topics
L1: Suffixing Succotash
Learn how to use auxiliary adjectives
Suffixing Succotash
Welcome to the start of N4! In this Topic, we are going to start off by taking a look at a type of word that we have never seen before, but will become familiar with very soon. These are what we will term as the auxiliary adjectives, for now.
やすい, にくい, づらい. These all attach to the stem form of verbs to convey new information about them.
One thing that we are going to have to watch out for here is that not every adjective can attach to the base of a verb, in fact, the vast majority can’t! So we’ll also look at what makes these ones special.
Additionally, we’ll take a closer look at one of our particles, でも.
Grammar in this Topic
でも
Or something, Any... (with question words), No matter (who)
でも is one of many adverbial particles in Japanese. These are particles that behave like a regular 助詞 (in that they appear after the words that they are referencing), but their role is a little bit more specific. でも itself has several uses, and the use that we will examine in this grammar point is called 例示. Basically this means 'presenting examples'.
In English, this results in a translation similar to 'even', or 'or something'. To use this structure, simply attach でも to the end of any noun, or pronoun.
When grouped with a standard noun as above, でも is just showing that the noun is an example/suggestion, and that there are other choices/possibilities available. However, when the noun is a word like 誰, どこ, 何, or いつ, the translation becomes much closer to English words like 'anyone', 'anywhere', 'anything', or 'anytime'.
Fun Fact
There is debate among Japanese native speakers about whether でも should be considered its own word, or if it is actually just a combination of the particles で and も (or て and も in the case of verbs, but we will cover that later). As で and も together could be translated as 'even with (A)', it would also be correct to consider it this way.
Caution
When grouped with 何, the pronunciation will almost always change to なん. This is purely to make なんでも easier to say.
やすい
Easy to, Likely to
易い is an い-Adjective that is regularly seen attached to the ます stem of verbs (the form of a verb that can be used as a noun). When attached in this way, it carries the meaning of 'easy to (A)', where (A) is the verb that comes before やすい.
Sometimes, やすい has a translation that is a bit closer to 'prone to (A)', or 'likely to (A)' in English. This nuance is regularly seen when the verb is related to emotions.
Caution
There is another adjective 安い that has the meaning of 'cheap'. This kanji should never be used with verbs to mean 'easy'. Most of the time, やすい itself will be written in hiragana, and usage of 易い is quite limited.
Fun Fact
Although 易い is an い-Adjective, it is almost never used by itself (when not attached to verbs). In such cases, it is much more natural to use the な-Adjective 簡単.
にくい
Difficult to, Hard to
Like 易い, にくい is an い-Adjective that is regularly attached to the ます stem of verbs. However, instead of meaning 'easy to (A)', it means 'difficult to (A)'. (A) will always represent the verb that comes before にくい.
The nuance of にくい is that (A) is a task that is difficult to do, because of the required skill level, or similar factors. This is different from づらい, which focuses more on a task that is difficult due to being unbearable/hard to endure for some reason.
Fun Fact
An easy way to remember the difference in nuance between にくい and づらい, is that にくい comes from the same kanji as 難しい, which usually carries the meaning of 'difficulty' (in relation to skill being required).
づらい
Hard to, Tough to, Painful to, Difficult to
Like にくい, づらい is an い-Adjective that attaches to the ます stem of verbs to express that something is 'difficult to do'. The main difference is that づらい expresses a psychological, emotional, or physical burden on the person performing the action. It carries a nuance of 'unbearable' or 'painful to do'.
Fun Fact
づらい comes from the い-adjective 辛い 'painful', or 'tough'. This reflects how a verb used with づらい will be painful or uncomfortable for the person performing it.
Details
でも Is a structure that appears in many different forms in Japanese. We have seen it as ても in N5 (like with てもいい), and we will often see it functioning as a prefix as well when meaning ‘but’. Despite all of these words being classified differently, they essentially still highlight the same thing. That something is not limited.
What Are They, Really?
So, after taking a look at やすい, にくい, and づらい, the natural conclusion to draw might be that these words are auxiliaries, seeing as though that is usually the name that we give to words that attach grammatically to other words and can conjugate themselves.
However, when attaching to the conjunctive form of verbs, these adjectives, which is what they essentially are, are simply taking on the role of a suffix. So they do not fall under the category of auxiliaries.
This will be important to remember, as adjectival suffixes are a very limited set of words, and you cannot simply put any adjective on the stem form of a verb to express something new about it.
In the second example where 楽しい is being used correctly, we can see how most adjectives usually describe whatever action they are talking about, through the use of のは or のが.
Where’d the Kanji Go?
As mentioned in the individual lessons for these grammar points, やすい, にくい, and づらい most frequently appear without kanji. Actually, this is very consistent in Japanese across many different types of words, and usually simply indicates that the word is functioning grammatically rather than too literally.
We are going to be taking a detailed look at this phenomenon in our first Bonus Topic in N4!