Complete Japanese Adjective Guide. Ann Tarumoto
difficult._________________________________________
Adjectives in the Predicate: The Past Affirmative
Adjectives in Japanese must be inflected to their past tense. You cannot simply take the non-past formal form samui desu and change desu to deshita. Adjectives are made past tense by dropping the last i and replacing it with -katta.
Example: samui > samukatta
Samukatta is the plain past tense. It means, It was cold. The addition of desu, as in samukatta desu, makes the sentence more formal, but does not alter the meaning in any way.
Remember that ii is always inflected from yoi.
Change these adjectives in the plain affirmative non-past to the plain affirmative past tense and give the English equivalent:
Example: warui > Warukatta. = It was bad.
| 1. | attakai >_________________________________________ |
| 2. | karai >_________________________________________ |
| 3. | tanoshii >_________________________________________ |
| 4. | ookii >_________________________________________ |
| 5. | muzukashii >_________________________________________ |
| 6. | takai >_________________________________________ |
| 7. | yasashii >_________________________________________ |
| 8. | amai >_________________________________________ |
| 9. | isogashii >_________________________________________ |
| 10. | suzushii >_________________________________________ |
Change these sentences to the formal past tense:
| 1. | Ano mondai wa yasashii desu._________________________________________ |
| 2. | Ano suupu wa atsui desu._________________________________________ |
| 3. | Kyoo wa suzushii desu._________________________________________ |
| 4. | Sensei wa ii desu._________________________________________ |
| 5. | Setsumei wa warui desu._________________________________________ |
| 6. | Nihon no jisho wa takai desu._________________________________________ |
| 7. | Piza wa mazui desu._________________________________________ |
| 8. | Seetaa wa atatakai desu._________________________________________ |
| 9. | Yuubinkyoku wa tooi desu._________________________________________ |
| 10. | Zasshi wa omoshiroi desu._________________________________________ |
Change these sentences as indicated by the word in parentheses:
Example: Kyoo wa atsui desu. (kinoo) > Kinoo wa atsukatta desu.
| 1. | Kinoo wa samukatta desu. (kyoo) _____________________ |
| 2. | Ashita wa isogashii desu. (ototoi) _____________________ |
| 3. | Kyoo wa samui desu. (kyonen) _____________________ |
| 4. | Kyoo no tempura wa oishii desu. (kinoo no tempura) _____________________ |
| 5. | Senshuu wa tanoshikatta desu. (ima) _____________________ |
How do you say these sentences in Japanese? Be sure to make the distinction between past and non-past sentences. Use sono to indicate the.
| 1. | The pizza was cold. _____________________ |
| 2. | The school is large. _____________________ |
| 3. | The books are inexpensive. _____________________ |
| 4. | The sweater was warm. _____________________ |
| 5. | Yesterday was fun. _____________________ |
| 6. | The soup is cold. _____________________ |
| 7. | Today was cool. _____________________ |
| 8. | The girl is small. _____________________ |
| 9. | The post office is far. _____________________ |
| 10. | The problems were difficult. _____________________ |
| 11. | Games are fun. _____________________ |
| 12. | The teacher was nice. _____________________ |
| 13. | The sushi was expensive. _____________________ |
| 14. | Saturday was hot. _____________________ |
| 15. | The explanation was good. _____________________ |
| 16. | The newspaper is old. _____________________ |
| 17. | The movie was interesting. _____________________ |
| 18. | The vegetables are fresh. _____________________ |
| 19. | Planes are fast. _____________________ |
| 20. | The TV was expensive. _____________________ |
Adjectives in the Predicate: The Past Negative
If you want to express the idea It was not cold in Japanese, you must change the adjective samui into its past negative form, Samuku arimasen deshita. This tense is formed by dropping the last i from the adjective and adding -ku arimasen deshita. The resulting past negative form is formal.
Change the following adjectives to their formal past negative forms and tell what they mean in English:
| 1. | tanoshii > _____________________ |
| 2. | oishii > _____________________ |
| 3. | atatakai > _____________________ |
| 4. | karai > _____________________ |
| 5. | ookii > _____________________ |
| 6. | muzukashii > _____________________ |
| 7. | tooi > _____________________ |
| 8. | ii > _____________________ |
| 9. | amai > _____________________ |
| 10. | suzushii > _____________________ |
What do these sentences mean in English?
1. Densha wa hayaku arimasen deshita.
_________________________________________
2. Ano konpyuuta wa yoku arimasen deshita.
_________________________________________
3. Kyoo wa suzushikatta desu.
_________________________________________
4. Sono rajio wa yasuku arimasen deshita.
_________________________________________
5. Amerika no zasshi wa omoshiroku arimasen.
_________________________________________
6. Sono sakana wa furukatta desu.
_________________________________________
7. Sono kudamono wa amaku arimasen deshita.
_________________________________________
8. Kono kuruma wa chiisaku arimasen.
_________________________________________
9. Ano niku wa atarashiku arimasen deshita.
_________________________________________
10. Kono kooto wa atatakaku arimasen.
_________________________________________
Now, try composing the following sentences using the formal past negative form of the appropriate adjective:
1. It wasn’t cold yesterday. _____________________
2. The tea wasn’t hot. _____________________
3. The water wasn’t cold. _____________________
4. I wasn’t busy. _____________________
5. The TV show wasn’t interesting. _____________________
6. The sushi wasn’t good. _____________________
7. The restaurant wasn’t expensive. _____________________
8. The train