Japanese Learning: Sentence Endings of Adjective Predicate Sentences; Four patterns for I-adjective and Na-adjective, and positive and negative (continued).

Anwers for yesterday’s quiz;

Q1: Ii (good) —– I- adjective

Q2: Genki (healthy and energetic) —– Na- adjective

Q3: Shizuka(quiet) —– Na- adjective

Q4: Atarashii (new) —– I- adjective

Q5: Oishii (tasty) —– I- adjective

Q6: Yuumei (famous) —– Na- adjective

Q7: Omoshiroi (interesting) —– I- adjective

Q8: Shinsetsu (kind) —– Na- adjective

Q9: Takai (expensive/tall/high) —– I- adjective

Q10: Kirei (beautiful/clean) —– Na- adjective

I hope that you answered correctly for Q10.

Let us review four patterns of adjective predicate sentences;

<1> Na-adjective predicate for present positive; (“desu”)

– Kono Kouen wa Kirei desu. (This park is beautiful.)

<2> Na-adjective predicate for present negative; (“dewa arimasen”)

– Kono Kouen wa Kirei dewa arimasen. (This park is not beautiful.)

“dewa” is quite often shortened to be “ja”, especially for conversation. “Ja” sounds a little casual, while “dewa” sounds polite.

<3> I-adjective predicate for present positive; (“desu”)

– Kono Kouen wa Atarashii desu. (This park is new.)

<4> I-adjective predicate for present negative; (“-kunai desu”)

– Kono Kouen wa Atarashikunai desu. (This park is not new.)

 For this <4>, an I-adjective and negative word “nai” is connected.

example: Atarashii + nai => Atarashikunai

The example shows that the last character “i” turns to be “ku”. When a word conjugates, the end part of the word changes according to the following word. But usually, it is so difficult for Japanese learners to accept this change. They don’t want to change the end part of an I-adjective that is “i”, and end up saying “Atarashii dewa naidesu”, which is wrong.

So what is most important for today is to make an I-adjective predicate “-kunaidesu” correctly for present negative.

By the way, as for I-adjective “Ii”, a special change happens to make it “-kunaidesu”.

Ii (good) —– positive predicate : Iidesu. => negative : Yokunaidesu.

Simply put “Ii” came from “Yoi”. Both mean good. When “Ii” conjugates, the first letter “I-” returns to be “Yo-”.

Quiz: Make “present-negative” endings;

example: Iidesu. (is good) => Yokunaidesu. (is not good)

Q1: Atarashiidesu. (is new) => ??? (is not new)

Q2: Oishiidesu. (is tasty) => ??? (is not tasty)

Q3: Omoshiroidesu. (is interesting) => ??? (is not interesting)

Q4: Takaidesu. (is expensive/tall/high) => ??? (is not so expensive)

Q5: Kireidesu (is beautiful/clean) => ??? (is not beautiful)

Answers will probably be shown on Wednesday. <この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第8課A2”の内容を参照しています（昨日と同じです）。>