な-Adjectives, but negative
な-Adjectives, but negative
Negative descriptor
As mentioned in the introductory lesson to な-adjectives, a lot of the conjugation rules that apply to nouns apply to な-adjectives as well. We can use this knowledge to easily remember how to turn な-adjectives into their negative form.
To negate な-adjectives, simply add the expression じゃない to the adjective. Notice that this is the same pattern used to negate だ.
きれいな人 → きれいじゃない人
Beautiful person → Not beautiful person
この歌、嫌じゃないけど、毎日聴くほどでもない。
This song isn’t bad, but it’s not something I’d listen to every day.
日本語の習得は楽じゃない。
Mastering Japanese isn’t easy.
Special Note
The な-adjective 大丈夫 all right is normally negated, like any other な-adjective, by just adding じゃない. But there is also a frequently used slang version of this negation. Instead of 大丈夫じゃない, だいじょうばない is used.
This comes from the fact that verbs that end in ぶ, like 飛ぶ fly, turn into 飛ばない in negative form. This change from ぶ to ば is then applied to the ぶ of だいじょうぶ and therefore turns its negative form to だいじょうばない.
Formation
きれいじゃない人