Adjectives - い

As mentioned in the previous post there are two types of adjectives, and being able to tell them apart is important as they conjugate differently.

This post will show how to conjugate い-adjectives, which is actually quite easy as it's just changing the ending.

The simplest is the non-past positive version, which is simply the dictionary form of the adjective, for example:

このりんごは美味しいです　(This apple is delicious)

Next, we have the non-past negative version, to form this, we take off the final い and add くない, for example:

このりんごは美味しくないです (This apple is not delicious)

Thirdly we have the past positive version, which we form by removing the final い and adding かった, for example:

このりんごは美味しかったです (This apple was delicious)

And lastly we have the past negative, which is formed by removing the final い and adding くなかった, for example:

このりんごは美味しくなかったです (This apple was not delicious)

And that's about it!, there are other things such as the て-form for adjectives, but that'll be covered separately.

じゃあ、またね！

Adjectives - Overview

Sometimes we need to be able to describe objects, to say things such as "this apple is delicious" or "that book is boring", to do so we need to learn about adjectives.

Adjectives in Japanese come in two groups, い-adjectives and な-adjectives.

い-adjectives are so called, and can be recognised by the fact that they end in an い symbol. It is important to remember that adjectives ending in an い sound (but not い itself), such as き、し、ち、etc. are NOT い-adjectives.

な-adjectives are so called because in their dictionary form, they end in a な.

Adjectives can appear directly before a noun, modifying it, or can appear on its own as a standalone word.

い-adjectives always remain the same, whether they appear before a noun, or on their own, such as in the following two examples.

これは美味しいりんごです (This is a delicious apple)
このりんごは美味しいです (This apple is delicious)

な-adjectives however get their な stripped off when appearing on their own, as in the following two sentences.

それはきれいなくつです (Those are pretty shoes)
そのくつはきれいです (Those shoes are pretty)

Note that although きれい (and きらい) end in the kana い they are actually な-adjectives, there are a few exceptions like this unfortunately :(

That's the basic format of adjectives!, we'll hopefully go through their conjugation in future posts.  

Verbs+の

I learned something today (Thanks Rob)

If you use a verb in dictionary form and add の, you can then use it in a similar way to using a noun.

For example, with a noun, you can say.

りんごが好きです。

I like apples.

But, if you use this method with a verb, you can say,

たべるのが好きです。

I like eating! So now, you can describe activities you like to do.

These sentences can get more complicated as you go on;

私はイギリスのりんごをたべるのが好きです。

I like eating English apples.

I'll try and remember this one! There may be other ways you can use verb+の, so when we find out we can most more examples of this.

Thanks!

Sally

て form: What are you doing now

て form is also used when you are describing what someone is doing at that moment.

So normally, you could say something like サリーさんはしんぶんをよみます。Sally reads a newspaper. So, let's break it down first.

サリーさん は しんぶん を よみます。

Miss Sally reads a newspaper. 

This is the basic sentence we'd use in Japanese, but what happens if someone asks:

サリーさんはいまなにをしていますか。　What is Sally doing now?

サリーさん (Miss Sally) は (particle) いま (now)  なに (what) を(particle) しています (doing) か (question)

You might think that the question will actually end in をしますか but it doesn't, the reason being is that をしますか implies future tense, which will contradict your use of the word 'now' いま. So, the question ends in をしていますか.

You need て form to describe what you are doing now, too.

The て form of よみます is よんで which we learnt in the blog post about the て form in general. Add います to よんで to finish the sentence and make it polite.

So finally, the sentence would be サリーさんはいましんぶんをよんでいます。Miss Sally is reading a newspaper now.

You can ask lots of things and give lots of answers with this! All you have to do is replace the object and the verb, and of course the person.

[Person]は [Time] [Object] を [Te form verb] います。

カイさんはいまなにをしていますか？What is Kai doing now?

カイさんはいまおちゃをのんでいます。Kai is drinking Japanese tea now. (おちゃ)

サリー

て form: Connecting sentences

Another use of the て form is that you can connect two related sentences together with it.

The problem though, is you can only really connect sentences that are subject and time related, so be careful how you use it. Also, you should only connect together two sentences, or three at the most otherwise you risk sounding quite unnatural. 

しちじにおきてがっこうにいきます。I get up at 7 and go to school. 

おきて is the て form of おきる which means to get up. We use the particle に here because it indicates movement from one place to another. 

When creating a sentence using the て form, you have to remember that the verb at the end shouldn't be theて form. As you can see, in our example sentence, いきます is used and not x いって。（The te form of いく which is irregular.) Also, this verb decides the tense of the sentence. So if you wanted to make it past tense, you'd say:

しちじにおきてがっこうにいきました。I got up at 7 and went to school. 

いきました being the past tense form of いく (It's also the polite form.)

サリー

て form: Making a request

One of the ways the て form is useful, is that it can be used for making a request: that is, politely asking someone to do something.

This is really easy!

ほん means 'book.' よむ is the dictionary form of 'to read.' (When I say dictionary form, I mean literally the simplest form which is always found in the dictionary.) を is the particle that usually comes before verbs (I don't yet understand it to it's fullest extent.) Finally, the word we need is 'please,' to make it polite. This is ください。

ほんをよんでください。

Please read the book.

You need to change the verb into the て form for this. ほんをよむください。X Is not correct. 

Now, as long as you know the object and the verb, you can ask politely for a person to do anything!

ビデオをみてください。Please watch the video. 

うちにきてください。 Please come home. 

Did you notice that in the second setence, the particle is に instead of を？ When you are suggesting a movement from A to B, you usually would use に instead of を.

That's all for now! 

サリー

て form

て form in Japanese is a form of verb that allows you to do various things.

The first thing you need to know is how to turn the dictionary form of a verb into the て form. How to do this depends on how the verb ends.

There are two types of verb. RU verbs, and U verbs. RU verbs usually end in る while U verbs usually end in other things, though there are exceptions.

たべる, to eat, is a RU verb. To turn RU verbs into the て form, it's very easy. All you do is take off the る and add て.

This means that たべる becomes たべて. Easy!

U verbs are not as simple, but with practice it'll become easy to remember.

If the verb ends in う、つ、る (remember, sometimes there are verbs that end in る that just happen to be U verbs and not RU verbs,) then to make it the て form you need to add って.

あう　becomes あって。

If the U verb ends in む、ぶ、め then you need んで。

よむ becomes よんで

If the U verb ends in く, then you need to make it いて。　

かく becomes かいて。

If the U verb ends in ぐ, then you need to add いで。

およぐ　becomes　およいで。

If the U verb ends in す then it becomes して。

はなす becomes はなして。

Great! It might take a while to remember all these, but don't worry. When you hear the verbs enough you will start to learn naturally which verb needs which ending.

Also, you need to remember three important exceptions, to go, to come and to do.

いく　－　いって
する　－　して
くる　－　きて

You'll just have to remember these on their own.

I'll be having some more sections with the て form, because now we know how to make it, we need to know what to do with it!

サリー