な-Adjectives Basics
な-Adjectives Basics
Describe nouns
Besides い-adjectives, な-adjectives are another way to more closely describe nouns.
な-adjectives often act like nouns, making many rules that apply to nouns also applicable to な-adjectives. You'll learn more about such cases in the next lesson.
Special Note
While い-adjectives are called that because they all end in い, this is not the case for な-adjectives!
They are called な-adjectives because they use な to connect to nouns!
So both are used to describe nouns; the way they connect with nouns is just different:
い-adjectives simply get attached to nouns (明るい人 cheerful person).
な-adjectives connect to nouns by inserting a な between them (綺麗な人 beautiful person).
Another important thing to note is that there are a small number of な-adjectives that end in an い, which might lead to you confusing them with い-adjectives. But out of those, only two are really of concern here as they are the most frequently used:
綺麗 beautiful cannot be confused with an い-adjective in its kanji form, but since both kanji are rather rare, it is also often written in hiragana, as きれい. In this form one might confuse it with an い-adjective, but it is not, so be careful.
嫌い dislike is the second one, even in kanji form it is written with an い at the end, but it is a な-adjective.
1
Using a な-adjective to describe a noun is straightforward: simply attach な to the adjective and place it before the noun in question.
きれい + な + 人
A beautiful person
These adjectives are called な-adjectives because they use な to combine with nouns. Duh.
きれいな字を書く練習を毎日しています。
I practice writing neat (beautiful) characters every day.
静かな図書館で勉強すると、集中しやすい。
It’s easy to concentrate when you study in a quiet library.
2
な-adjectives can also be used at the end of a sentence. When placed at the end, they are often followed by だ.
私は料理が下手だ。
I’m bad at cooking.
Special Note
It is important to note that 大き and 小さ are exceptions that must be followed by a noun. They cannot be used like other な-adjectives followed by だ. This is because both originated from the い-adjectives 大きい and 小さい.
この犬は、小さだ。
This dog is small.
小さな犬だ。
It is a small dog
For anyone who's curious, these are called 連体詞 pre-noun adjectivals. Basically, these are words that function like adjectives, but always come directly before a noun and cannot be used at the end of a sentence. But seriously, don’t worry about remembering that.
Special Note
In Japanese, な-adjectives are called 形容動詞, or more precisely, ナリ活用形容動詞 .
Formation
きれいな人