Adjectives describe the quality of a
noun: the expensive book and so forth
Almost all adjectives end on い -I (pronounced "ee"):
- 高い TAKA-I: expensive
- YASU-I: cheap
- UMA-I: delicious
- I-I: good
- WARU-I: bad
The second class of adjectives ends on しい -SHII
- 新 しい ATARA-SHII: new
- UTSUKU-SHII: beautiful
- KANA-SHII: sad
Only the "endings" い -I and しい -SHII
are written in Hiragana (Syllables Characters)
but the word is "assigned" to a
Kanji (Word Characters)
And only the "I"-ending changes:
- 高 い TAKA-I: expensive-to-be, he/she/it is expensive
- 高 かった TAKA-KATTA: expensive-was, it was expensive
- 高 くない TAKA-KU-NAI: expensive-to-be-not, it is not expensive
- 高 くなる TAKA-KU-NARU: expensive-to-become, it becomes more expensive (as before → verb flections!)
- 高 くならない TAKA-KU-NARA-NAI: expensive-to-become-not, it becomes not more expensive (as before → verb flections!)
- 高 くなかった TAKA-KU-NAKATTA: expensive-was-not, it was not expensive
- 高 ければ TAKA-KERE-BA: expensive-to-be-if , if it is expensive (or would be)
- 高 かったら TAKA-KATTARA: expensive-was-if , if it was expensive (or would have been)
So changes the second class on しい -SHII:
- 新 しい ATARA-SHI-I: new-to-be, he/she/it is new
- 新 しかった ATARA-SHI-KATTA: new-was, it was new
- 新 しくない ATARA-SHI-KU-NAI: new-to-be-not, it is not new
- 新 しくなる ATARA-SHI-KU-NARU: new-to-become, it becomes new (→ verb flections!)
- 新 しくならない ATARA-SHI-KU-NARANAI: new-to-become-not, it becomes not new (→ verb flections!)
- 新 しくなかった ATARA-SHI-KU-NAKATTA: new-was-not, it was not new
- 新 しければ ATARA-SHI-KERE-BA: new-to-be-if , if it is new (or would be)
- 新 しかったら ATARA-SHI-KATTARA: new-was-if , if it was new (or would have been)
A third class of "classic" adjectives comes directly from Chinese.
Of course, they are Kanji, with
ON reading
So these are Nouns made to adjectives using the
particles の NO or な NA:
SO-BOKU: (raw+simple) → SO-BOKU NA: raw+simple
Sometimes they end with the original Chinese suffix 的, Japanese "TEKI", in Chinese "DÈ":
HI-KAKU: comparison → HI-KAKU-TEKI NI: relatively
Offtopic :) the Chinese original (Mandarin):
BI-JIAO: comparison → BI-JIAO-DÈ: relatively
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