Adjectives Flashcards
あおい
Blue-green (meaning it is used to describe the entire colour spectrum from blue to green, both grass and the sky are coloured aoi
あかい
Red
しろい
White
くろい
Black
きいろい
Yellow
いぬは くろい です
The Dog is Black
くろい いぬ です
it is a black dog
せんせいは いい です
あなたは せんせいは いい です
あなたは いい せんせい です
The teacher is good
a broken sentence attempting to say “you are a good teacher”
The correct way to say “you are a good teacher”
これは しろい ねこ です
This is a white cat
これは しろい ごみばこ ではありません
This is not a white garbage can
みどり
Green - noun
むらさき
Purple - noun
いろ
Colour - noun
ちゃいろ
Brown (literally means tea colour) - noun
オレンジいろ
orange (literally means the colour of an orange) - noun
ねずみいろ
Grey (literally means mouse colour) - noun
グレー
Grey - noun
むらさきの さら です
It is a purple dish (it is a dish of the colour purple)
はなこちゃんは オレンジいろの ねこ です
Hanako-chan is an orange cat
な
other than for colours this is used to connect a pseudo-objective to a noun in the same way no is used to connect some of the previous colours
じょうず
Good (skilled) - pseudo adjective [PA]
へた
Bad (unskilled) - pseudo adjective [PA]
へん
weird/strange - pseudo adjective [PA]
きれい
pretty/clean - [PA]
かんたん
simple [PA]
すき
likeable [PA]
きらい
disagreeable [PA]
じょうずな せんせい
a skilled teacher
すきな えいが
a likeable movie (a movie that i like)
すきな ひと
きらいな ひと
a person i like (someone i have a crush on)
a person i dislike
すずきさんは へたな せんせい ですね
Mr. Suzuki is a bad teacher isn’t he?
True adjectives (such as kuroi etc.) can change form based on tense, when saying “the cat was black”, instead of putting desu into the past tense we actually put black into the past tense instead
くろい tense chart:
another rule on tenses with adjectives: only change the tense on the adjective if the adjective comes at the end of the sentence and isn’t directly modifying anything (for instance sentences like, “the cloud was white”, but not sentences like “the white cloud…”
Present tense, positive: ~い
Present tense, negative: ~くない
Past tense, positive: ~かった
Past tense, negative: ~くなかった
Present tense, positive: くろい - it is black
Present tense, negative: くろくない - it isn’t black
Past tense, positive: くろかった - it was black
Past tense, negative: くろくなかった - it wasn’t black
Worth remembering:
all true adjectives end in い if an adjective doesn’`t end with this it means its either a pseudo adjective or not one at all
using desu alongside a true adjective is simply polite and not actually necessary, for instance the true meaning of くろい is:
it is black
その はなは しろくなかった
The flower was not white
The only true adjective in Japanese that is irregular compared to these rules is いい, which when changing tense uses an older form: よい
Present tense, positive: ~いい
Present tense, negative: よくない
Past tense, positive: よかった
Past tense, negative: よくなかった
くもは しろい
くもは しろかった
くもは ねずみいろ です
くもは ねずみいろ でした
the cloud is white
the cloud was white
the cloud is grey
The cloud was grey
あつい
Hot
むし あつい
Hot and Humid
さむい
Cold (air)
つめたい
Cold to the touch
あたたかい
Warm
すずしい
Cool
ない
non-existant (means the same thing as arimasen so is a commonly used word)
おかねが ありません
おかねが ない
both have identical meaning: “I have no money”
おかねが ありません でした
おかねが なかった
Both: “I had no money”
わたし ではありません
わたし ではない
Both: “it is not me”
