Where describing words sit, and the two kinds

An adjective is a describing word: big, small, sad, good. Japanese puts them in front of the noun and never changes them to match it, but they split into two kinds that attach differently.

≈ 3 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

Describing words sit in front of the noun and never change to match it: no gender, no plural, no agreement.
The i class behaves like a verb: 大きいōkii can close a sentence with no “is” in it.
The na class cannot, and leans on だda to do that work.
きれいkirei ends in the sound “i” but belongs to the na class — trust the characters, not the sound.

An adjective is a describing word: big, old, sad, good. In Japanese they sit in front of the noun, exactly as in English, and nothing about the noun makes them change — though they do change for tense, which the past section returns to.

Six describing words

Describing words come in two kinds. The right-hand column tells you which kind each one is.

Japanese	Kind
大きいōkii“big”	ends in いi
小さいchiisai“small”	ends in いi
いいii“good”	ends in いi
うれしいureshii“happy”	ends in いi
かなしいkanashii“sad”	ends in いi
きれいなkirei na“beautiful”	the other kind, needs なna

きれいkirei ends in the sound “i” but is not one of the いi words — look at the characters, not the sound. The colours, and more words like these, are in the word lookup.

What each kind needs in front of a noun

The two kinds behave differently the moment you put one in front of a noun.

大きいōkii“big”

大きい犬ōkii inu“a big dog”

straight onto the noun, nothing between

きれいkirei“beautiful”

きれいな日kirei na hi“a beautiful day”

needs なna to lean on a noun

ダラはDara wa“Dara” とてもいいともだちだtotemo ii tomodachi da“is a very good friend”.

ダラはとてもいいともだちだ。

Dara wa totemo ii tomodachi da.

ともだちtomodachi“friend” is new, and とてもtotemo“very” goes in front of the describing word, as in English. When an i word ends the sentence instead, there is no “is” anywhere: the describing word does the verb’s whole job.

Which class, and where is the “is”?

犬は大きい。
Something is missing from the end, and that is the point.
Show answer +Hide answer −
inu wa ōkii — “The dog is big.” No だda: the describing word closed the sentence itself.
きれいな日だ。
The other class.
Show answer +Hide answer −
kirei na hi da — “It is a beautiful day.” This one needed both the なna and the だda.

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