N5 Topics
L3: Well, That Was Good!
Describe things in the past
Well, That Was Good!
In this Topic, we're going to get our first proper look at how い-Adjectives conjugate. Specifically, we're going to learn about the past tense. We'll also take a closer look at いい, the only exception when it comes to conjugating い-Adjectives.
Grammar in this Topic
い-Adjective (Past)
Was, Were (Past tense)
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.
面白い - 'Interesting' in its base (dictionary form).
面白かっ - 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.
いい
い-Adjective meaning 'good'
いい is an adjective that means 'good' in Japanese. It can be a little bit difficult to use at first, as it conjugates differently to other い-Adjectives.
In these sentences, we can see that the first い in いい changes to よ, depending on the form. This is unique to いい, and does not happen with other adjectives.
いい can sometimes be seen as 良い, in these cases, the kanji is likely to be read as よい, and not いい. There is technically no difference between these two meanings, but よい does sound more formal/old-fashioned.
Caution
When used as an adverb, よく should not be confused as a conjugation of いい. よく has several possible kanji that it may stem from, and means frequently/often/well.
Details
Now that we've seen the past form of い-Adjectives (and seen how the exception, いい, works), let's take a deeper look at the logic.
Regular, Simple, Easy!
Although the dictionary form of い-Adjectives ends with い, the conjugated forms all involve the K-column of the kana table. This is due to historical reasons (in Old Japanese, adjectives ended in く or しく). We can see the possible conjugated forms below.
-
く
- ＋ …
-
か
っ- ＋ …
-
い
- ＋ …
-
け
れ- ＋ …
-
か
ろ- ＋ …
Very similar to verbs, we can simply add extra words/auxiliary verbs to these possible conjugations to add to or change the meaning of an い-Adjective.
-
く
- ＋ …
-
か
っ- ＋た「＋です」
-
い
- ＋ …
-
け
れ- ＋ …
-
か
ろ- ＋ …
Irregular, Complicated, Difficult?
Lucky for us, Japanese adjectives are extremely regular. We've met the only exception already (いい). One thing to note though is that any compound word which includes いい will follow the same exception.
As for な-Adjectives, we will learn more about their past tense later on!
Big Day with Dad
--:--
子供：「京都は広かったね。天気も良かったよね！」
お父さん：「そうだね。楽しかったね。」
子供：「動物園は狭かったね…。動物は可愛かった！猿は怖かったよ…。」
お父さん：「猿は怖かったの？クマは？」
子供：「クマは優しかった！」
お父さん：「じゃあ、黄色い鳥は？」
子供：「あの鳥は強かったね！かっこよかった！」
お父さん：「鳥は頭もいいんだよ。」
子供：「いいね！鳥が欲しいな！」