Japanese Adjectives: the inside secrets that make the whole thing easy

Basic Japanese, Structure, Video

My whole enterprise of unlocking Japanese started with Japanese adjectives!

My short explanation of the so-called i- and na- adjectives proved so popular that I turned it into a video. It tells you four facts that you need to know about Japanese adjectives – not one of which the standard textbooks and Japanese learning sites ever tell you.

It’s kind of amazing. These are the basic things you have to know in order to use Japanese adjectives properly and the standard teaching methods just leave you to half-intuit them. If you’re lucky you do, and if you’re not lucky – well hard luck.

So we cleared that up a few years ago. Made the video last year. Why a new Japanese adjectives video now?

Well the last one starts off from the “i-adjectives and na-adjectives” notion of the standard textbook explanations. And it finally makes them clear and understandable.

But what if we start from scratch? What if we explain how the whole adjectival concept is different in Japanese than in English? What if we show how not just “adjectives” (i-adjectives) and adjectival nouns (na-adjectives) but also verbs work as adjectives all the time in Japanese?

And how this is essential to the most basic structure of how Japanese works all the time.

Can we do all that in one short video? Yes we can.

Isn’t it terribly complicated? Not at all! It’s looking at them in the wrong way (the way the textbooks do) that makes it complicated.

Just sit back and let the whole thing become crystal clear!

You will find the worksheet to go along with this lesson right here. This will help you to consolidate the information and really understand it. It’s on my Patreon, but you don’t need to be a patron to access this worksheet.

The answer sheet is here but please don’t peep at it until you’ve completed the worksheet!

Using these tools you can cement your understanding of Japanese Adjectives.

2 thoughts on “Japanese Adjectives: the inside secrets that make the whole thing easy”

  1. Since ‘akai’ means ‘is read’, it ought to be possible to say ‘pen-ga akai-ka’. Is this the case? I have no way of testing it. If not, how do you say ‘is the pen red?’ (in plain form).

  2. Yes this is correct. Actually ka is not mostly used to make questions in familiar (non desu-masu) speech. It is grammatical but can sound a little curt. Usually questions are marked with the particle no plus a rising intonation or just a rising intonation (in writing this is indicated by a question mark ?)

    More on ka here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOv3voBcEv8

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