Complete Japanese Adjective Guide. Ann Tarumoto
The newspapers weren’t old. _____________________
10. The house wasn’t large. _____________________
11. The weather wasn’t bad. _____________________
12. The explanation wasn’t difficult.
13. The school wasn’t nearby. _____________________
14. The cat wasn’t small. _____________________
15. The store wasn’t inexpensive. _____________________
16. The TV wasn’t big. _____________________
17. The room wasn’t cool. _____________________
18. The bus wasn’t early. _____________________
19. The pizza wasn’t bad tasting. _____________________
20. It wasn’t fun yesterday. _____________________
The Past Negative: Plain Form
As with the other forms we have studied so far, the negative past tense has a plain form as well as a formal form. The plain form may be obtained by replacing arimasen deshita with nakatta. Therefore, the equivalent plain form of samuku arimasen deshita (it is not cold) is samuku nakatta.
Change these formal sentences to a plain form and give the English equivalent:
1. Oishiku arimasen deshita. > ____________________
(Eng.)____________________________________
2. Ookiku arimasen deshita. > ____________________
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3. Inu wa chiisaku arimasen deshita. > ____________________
_________________________________________
4. Amerika no eiga wa omoshiroku arimasen deshita. > ________
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5. Tenki wa yoku arimasen deshita. >___________________
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6. Kono karee wa karaku arimasen deshita. >__________________
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7. Mondai wa muzukashiku arimasen deshita. >___________________
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8. Suupu wa atsuku arimasen deshita. > ____________________
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9. Kyoo wa suzushiku arimasen deshita. > __________________
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10. Yuubinkyoku wa tooku arimasen deshita. > ____________________
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11. Niku wa atarashiku arimasen deshita. > _________________
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12. Yasai wa yasuku arimasen deshita. > ____________________
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Try composing the following sentences using the plain form of the appropriate adjective:
1. The coffee wasn’t hot. _____________________
2. The newspaper wasn’t expensive.___________
3. The teacher wasn’t good. _____________________
4. Today wasn’t warm. _____________________
5. The dictionary wasn’t cheap. _____________________
6. The post office wasn’t far. _____________________
7. School wasn’t fun. _____________________
8. The bread wasn’t fresh. _____________________
9. The car wasn’t fast. _____________________
10. The Coke wasn’t cold. _____________________
11. The computer wasn’t old. _____________________
12. The weather wasn’t bad. _____________________
4. Zenzen, Tokidoki and Other Adverbs
Adjectives can be described by adverbs such as totemo, tokidoki and zenzen.
The following adverbs can only be used with an affirmative predicate (past & nonpast).
| Adverb | Meaning | |
| tokidoki | sometimes | |
| totemo | very, a lot | |
| itsumo | always | |
| kanari | quite | |
| chotto | a little | |
| The following adverbs can only be used with a negative predicate (past & non-past). | ||
| Adverb | Meaning | |
| zenzen | not at all, never, in no way | |
| amari, anmari | not very | |
| The following adverb can be used with either affirmative or negative predicates. | ||
| Adverb | Meaning | |
| taitei | usually | |
| Adverbs are usually placed directly before the adjectives they modify. | ||
| Example: | Totemo omoshiroi desu. = It is very interesting. Ano eiga wa anmari omoshiroku nai. = That movie is not very interesting. |
Don’t make the mistake in thinking that zenzen and amari with a negative predicate constitute a double negative. Those adverbs by themselves will not make a negative sentence. The sentence is not negative until the predicate is put in negative form.
Try this exercise. You may use either formal or plain forms of the adjective.
1. It is very interesting. _____________________
2. I’m not busy at all. _____________________
3. It doesn’t taste very good. _____________________
4. It’s always fun. _____________________
5. It’s not hot at all. _____________________
6. Sometimes it’s expensive. _____________________
7. It’s not difficult at all. _____________________
8. It’s usually cool. _____________________
9. It’s quite warm. _____________________
10. It wasn’t very early. _____________________
11. Sometimes they’re cheap. _____________________
12. I was very busy. _____________________
13. It’s not very easy. _____________________
14. It was quite far. _____________________
15. Sometimes it’s