い-Adjectives Basics

い-Adjectives Basics

Describe nouns

If we want to describe nouns more closely, we use adjectives. There are two types of adjectives in Japanese: い-adjectives and na-adjectives.

い-adjectives are easy to recognize because they always end in the Hiragana character い. Surprising, I know.

To use い-adjectives, you simply attach them in front of the noun you want to describe.

Besides appearing in front of the noun they modify, い-adjectives can also be used at the end of a sentence. It is important to note, however, that they cannot be followed by だ.

A common structure in such cases is A​は​B​, where A is the subject being described, and B is the い-adjective.

Special Note

Be careful, however, as a few na-adjectives also end in い when written in Hiragana. The two most common ones are きれい​ beautiful and きらい​ dislike. If you remember these two, you should be fine.

We sometimes talk about the い-adjective stem. This refers to the part of the い-adjective that remains after removing the い. For example, the stem of うつくしい​ is うつくし.

Special Note

In Japanese, い-adjectives are called 形容詞(けいようし).

Formation