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Japanese adjectives
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This article deals with Japanese equivalents of English adjectives.

Contents

 1Types of adjective
 2Syntax
o 2.1i-adjectives
 2.1.1shii-adjectives
o 2.2na-adjectives
 2.2.1-yaka na adjectives
 2.2.2-raka na adjectives
 2.2.3taru-adjectives
 2.2.4naru-adjectives
 o 2.3Attributives
o 2.4Archaic forms
 3Inflection
o 3.1i-adjective
o 3.2na-adjective
o 3.3taru-adjective
o 3.4Adverb forms
 4Terminology
 5See also
 6Notes
 7References
 8External links

Types of adjective[edit]
In Japanese, nouns and verbs can modify nouns, with nouns taking the 〜の particles
when functioning attributively (in the genitive case), and verbs in the attributive form (連
体形 rentaikei). These are considered separate classes of words, however.
Most of the words that can be considered to be adjectives in Japanese fall into one of
two categories – variants of verbs, and nouns:

 adjectival verb (Japanese: 形容詞, keiyōshi, literally 形

容 "description" or "appearance" + 詞 "word"), or i-
adjectives
These can be considered specialized verbs, in that they
inflect for various aspects such as past
tense or negation, and they can be used predicatively to
end a sentence, without the need for any other "to be"
verb. For example, atsui (暑い) "hot":
暑い日 (Atsui hi) ("a hot day")
今日は暑い。(Kyō wa atsui.) ("Today is hot.")

 adjectival noun (形容動詞, keiyō-dōshi, literally 形

容 "description" or "appearance" + 動詞 "verb"[a]), or na-
adjectives
These can be considered a form of noun in terms of
syntax; these attach to the copula, which then inflects,
but use 〜な -na (rather than the genitive 〜の) when
modifying a noun. For example, hen (変) "strange":
変な人 (Hen-na hito) ("a strange person")
彼は変だ。(Kare wa hen da.) ("He is strange.")
Both the predicative forms (終止形 shūshikei, also
called the "conclusive form" or "terminal form") and
attributive forms (連体形 rentaikei) of adjectival verbs
and adjectival nouns can be analyzed as verb phrases,
making the attributive forms of adjectival verbs and
adjectival nouns relative clauses, rather than adjectives.
According to this analysis, Japanese has no syntactic
adjectives.
Japanese adjectives that do not fall into either of these
categories are usually grouped into a grab-bag
category:

 attributives (連体詞, rentaishi, literally 連 "connects,
goes with" + 体 "body", short for 体言 "uninflecting
word" such as a noun + 詞 "word")
These may only occur before nouns, and not in a
predicative position. They are various in derivation and
word class, and are generally analyzed as variants of
more basic classes, where this specific form (possibly
a fossil) can only be used in restricted settings. For
example, ōkina (大きな) "big" (variant of 大きい):
大きな事 (Ōkina koto) ("a big thing")
A couple of small sub-categories can be
distinguished in these categories, reflecting former
grammatical distinctions or constructions which no
longer exist:

 -shii adjectives (form of -i adjectives, see below)

 -yaka na adjectives (see below)
 -raka na adjectives (see below)
 taru adjectives (ト・タル形容動詞, to, taru
keiyōdōshi, literally "to, taru adjectival noun")
These are a variant of the common na-nominals
(adjectival noun; see article for naming) that developed
in Late Old Japanese and have mostly died out,
surviving in a few cases as fossils; they are usually
classed as a form of 形容動詞 (adjectival noun), as the
Japanese name indicates.

 naru adjectives
These are words that were traditionally earlier forms
of na-nominals, but that followed a path similar
to taru adjectives, surviving in a few cases as fossils.
These are generally classed as rentaishi.

Syntax[edit]
i-adjectives[edit]
Adjectival verbs (形容詞 keiyōshi) end with
い i (but never えい ei) in base form. They
may predicate sentences and inflect for past,
negative, etc. As they head verb phrases,
they can be considered a type
of verbal (verb-like part of speech) and
inflect in an identical manner as the negative
form of verbs. Their inflections are different
and not so numerous as full verbs.
Adjectival verbs are considered verbs
because they inflect with the same bases as
verbs and their respective usages: irrealis
(未然形 mizenkei), continuative (連用
形 renyōkei), terminal (終止形 shuushikei,
attributive (連体形 rentaikei, hypothetical (仮
定形 kateikei), and imperative (命令
形 meireikei).
Among the six bases of verbs for adjectival
verbs, there exist two sets of inflection
paradigms: a "plain" or "true" conjugation,
and what is known as a kari-conjugation (カ
リ活用 kari-katsuyō), which is the result of
the contraction between the
"plain" renyōkei form 〜く ku and the verb あ
り (有り, 在り) ari, meaning "to exist", "to
have", or "to be". Due to this, the kari-
conjugation paradigm resembles that of
the r-irregular conjugation paradigm (ラ行変
格活用 ra-gyō henkaku katsuyō) of あり ari,
however the kateikei (historically the 已然
形 izenkei) is 〜けれ kere instead of 〜か
れ kare (used historically, and also
the meireikei base).
The stem of i-adjectives can combine
(prepend on the left), similar to the stem form
(連用形 renyōkei) of verbs, though this is
less common than for verbs. Conversely,
nouns or verb stems can sometimes
prepend i-adjectives, or two i-adjectives can
combine, forming compound modifiers; these
are much less common than Japanese
compound verbs. Common examples
include omo-shiro-i (面白い, interesting)
"face-whitening" (noun + i-adjective)
and zuru-gashiko-i (狡賢い, sly) "crafty-
clever" (i-adjective stem + i-adjective),
while haya-tochiri (早とちり, going off half-
cocked) "fast-fumble" (i-adjective stem +
verb stem) shows an adjective stem joining
to form a noun.
shii-adjectives[edit]
Further information: Old Japanese
§ Adjectives, and Late Middle Japanese
§ Adjectives
A number of i-adjectives end in -shii (〜し
い) (sometimes written -sii). These are
overwhelmingly words for feelings,
like kanashii (悲しい, sad) or ureshii (嬉しい,
happy). These were originally a separate
class of adjectives, dating at least to Old
Japanese (see Old Japanese adjectives),
where the two classes are known as -ku (〜
く) and -shiku (〜しく), corresponding to -
i and -shii. However, they merged over the
course of Late Middle Japanese (see Late
Middle Japanese adjectives), and now shii-
adjectives are simply a form of i-adjectives.
The distinction, although no longer
meaningful in pronunciation, is still reflected
by the writing system, where -し- is still
written out in hiragana, as in atarashii (新し
い, new).
Adjectives that end in -jii (〜じい) are also
considered -shii adjectives, such
as susamajii (凄まじい, terrific), and
historically onaji (同じ, same), which was
initially a -shii adjective, and the classical
negative volitional auxiliary maji (まじ).
na-adjectives[edit]
Adjectival nouns (形容動詞 keiyō-dōshi)
always occur with a form of the copula,
traditionally considered part of the adjectival
noun itself. The only syntactical difference
between nouns and adjectival nouns is in the
attributive form, where nouns take no and
adjectives take na. This has led many
linguists to consider them a type
of nominal (noun-like part of speech).
Through use of inflected forms of the copula,
these words can also predicate sentences
and inflect for past, negative, etc.
Notably, na adjectives are distinct from
regular nouns, in that they cannot be used
as the topic, subject, or object. To function in
these roles, the na adjectives must include
the nominalizing suffix さ (-sa), broadly
similar to the English suffix -ness that is used
to create nouns from adjectives.
-yaka na adjectives[edit]
There are a number of na adjectives ending
in 〜やか -yaka, particularly for subjective
words (compare -i adjectives ending in -shii).
This is believed to be a combination of two
suffixes 〜や -ya and 〜か -ka, where -
ya meant "softness" and -ka meant
"apparent, visible" (similar to modern 〜そ
う -sō, which is also followed by 〜な),
hence the combination -ya-ka meant
"appears somewhat ..., looks slightly ...".
This was believed to have been used in the
Nara era, and have become particularly
popular in the Heian period, but is no longer
productive.[1][better source needed] In some cases the
original word is now only used (or almost
always used) in the -yaka form, such as 鮮や
か aza-yaka "vivid, brilliant", 穏やか oda-
yaka "calm, gentle", and 爽やか sawa-
yaka "fresh, clear", while in other cases the
word is used in isolation, such as
雅 miyabi "elegant, graceful", which is used
alongside 雅やか miyabi-yaka "elegant,
graceful", and in other cases a related word
also exists, such as 賑やか nigi-
yaka "bustling, busy" and the verb 賑わ
う nigi-wau "be bustling, be busy". The most
basic of these is 賑やか nigi-yaka "bustling,
busy", but many of these are everyday
words. Due to the -yaka being originally a
suffix, it is written as okurigana, even though
the compound word may now be a fixed unit.
-raka na adjectives[edit]
Similarly, there are also a few na adjectives
ending in 〜らか -raka, of similar origin.
These are generally less subjective, but
declined in popularity relative to the -
yaka construction in the Heian period[1]
[better source needed]
 Notable examples include 明ら
か aki-raka "clear, obvious" and 柔らか／軟
らか yawa-raka "soft, gentle". As with -
yaka words, the 〜らか is written out as
okurigana.
taru-adjectives[edit]
A variant of na adjectives exist, which take
〜たる -taru when functioning attributively
(as an adjective, modifying a noun), and 〜
と -to when functioning adverbially (when
modifying a verb),[2][better source needed] instead of the
〜な -na and 〜に -ni which are mostly used
with na adjectives. taru adjectives do not
predicate a sentence (they cannot end a
sentence, as verbs and i-adjectives can) or
take the copula (as na-adjectives and nouns
can), but must modify a noun or verb. Note
that sometimes na adjectives take a 〜と,
and Japanese sound symbolisms generally
take a (sometimes optional) 〜と, though
these are different word classes.
There are very few of these words,[3]
[better source needed]
 and they usually are considered
somewhat stiff or archaic; this word class is
generally not covered in textbooks for foreign
language learners of Japanese. One of the
most common is 堂々 dōdō "magnificent,
stately". These are referred to in Japanese
as ト・タル形容動詞 (to, taru keiyōdōshi) or
タルト型活用 (taruto-kata katsuyō – “taru, to
form conjugation”).
See 形容動詞#「タルト」型活用 for
discussion in Japanese. Historically,
these developed in Late Old Japanese as a
variant of na adjectives,[dubious – discuss][4][5][unreliable
source?]
 but the form mostly died out; the
remaining taru adjectives are fossils, and
conjugationally defective, having formerly
held the pattern of the r-irregular class, like
its component あり.
naru-adjectives[edit]
There are also a few naru adjectives such as
単なる tannaru "mere, simple" or 聖な
る seinaru "holy", which developed similarly
to taru-adjectives.[4][unreliable source?] As
with taru adjectives, these cannot predicate
or take the copula, but must modify a noun
(though generally not a verb – many of these
only modify nouns via なる, not verbs via ×
に), and often occur in set phrases, such
as Mother Nature (母なる自然, haha-naru
shizen). In Late Old Japanese, tari adjectives
developed as a variant of nari adjectives.
Most nari adjectives became na adjectives in
Modern Japanese, while tari adjectives
either died out or survived as taru adjective
fossils, but a few nari adjectives followed a
similar path to the tari adjectives and
became naru adjective fossils. They are
generally classed into rentaishi.
Attributives[edit]
Attributives (rentaishi) are few in number,
and unlike the other words, are strictly
limited to modifying nouns. Rentaishi never
predicate sentences. They derive from other
word classes, and so are not always given
the same treatment syntactically. For
example, ano (あの, "that") can be analysed
as a noun or pronoun a plus the genitive
ending no; aru (ある or 或る, "a
certain"), saru (さる, "a certain"),
and iwayuru (いわゆる, "so-called") can be
analysed as verbs (iwayuru being an
obsolete passive form of the verb iu (言う)
"to speak"); and ōkina (大きな, "big") can be
analysed as the one remaining form of the
obsolete adjectival noun ōki nari.
Attributive onaji (同じ, "the same") is
sometimes considered to be a rentaishi, but
it is usually analysed as simply an irregular
adjectival verb (note that it has an adverbial
form onajiku). The final form onaji, which
occurs with the copula, is usually considered
to be a noun, albeit one derived from the
adjectival verb.
 It can be seen that attributives are analysed
variously as nouns, verbs, or adjectival
nouns.
Archaic forms[edit]
Various archaic forms from Middle
Japanese remain as fossils, primarily uses
of -shi (〜し) or -ki (〜き) forms that in
Modern Japanese would usually be -i (〜い).
Everyday examples notably include yoshi (良
し, good, ok) and nashi (無し, nothing) – in
modern grammar yoi (良い) and nai (無い),
respectively. Similarly, furuki yoki (古き良き,
good old (days etc.)) uses archaic forms
of furui (古い, old) and yoi (良い, good).

Inflection[edit]
i-adjective[edit]
Adjectival verbs (i-adjectives) have a basic
inflection created by dropping the -i from the
end and replacing it with the appropriate
ending. Adjectival verbs are made more
polite by the use of です desu. です desu is
added directly after the inflected plain form
and has no syntactic function; its only
purpose is to make the utterance more polite
(see Honorific speech in Japanese).

present past present neg. past neg.

あつい ats あつかった ats あつくない ats あつくなかった at

i adjective
ui ukatta uku nai suku nakatta

あつくないで あつくなかったで
す atsuku nai す atsuku nakatta
あついで
polite i adj あつかったです  desu desu
す atsui
. atsukatta desu あつくありま あつくありません
desu せん atsuku でした atsuku
arimasen arimasen deshita

いい ii "good" is a special case because it

comes from the adjective 良い yoi. In present
tense it is read as いい ii but since it derives
 from よい yoi all of its inflections supplete its
forms instead. For example, 良いですね ii
desu ne "[It] is good" becomes 良かったです
ね yokatta desu ne "[It] was good". かっこい
い kakkoii "cool" also fits the same category
because it is a mash-up of 格好 kakkō and
いい ii.[6]
い i adjectives like 安い yasui ("cheap") have
the い i changed to ければ kereba to change
them to conditional form, e.g. 安けれ
ば yasukereba; 安くなけれ
ば yasukunakereba.
Adjectival verbs do actually have a full verb
inflection paradigm created through
contraction with the former copular verb あり
(ari), consisting of six verb bases, that obeys
the grammar surrounding verbs in Japanese.
The usage of the full inflection is more
limited in Modern Japanese and the majority
of adjective usage in Japanese will be within
the bounds of the basic inflection above.
Auxiliary verbs are attached to some of the
verb bases in order to convey information;
only the terminal, attributive, and imperative
bases are used on their own without auxiliary
support.

Hypothet Impera
Irrealis (未然 Continuative Terminal (終 Attributive
ical (仮 tive (命
形) (連用形) 止形) (連体形)
定形) 令形)

あつかろ ats あつい atsui
あつく atsuku あつい atsui あつか
ukaro あつし ats あつけれ  れ atsuk
あつかり ats あつき ats
あつから ats ushi (obsolete atsukere are
ukari (formal) uki (formal)
ukara (formal) or formal)

The two irrealis stems, 〜かろ karo and 〜か

ら kara, are used for different purposes. The
〜かろ karo stem is used to create the
volitional inflection by appending the
volitional auxiliary 〜う u, e.g. 暑かろ
う atsukarō, while the 〜から kara stem is
used for the formal negation auxiliary 〜
 ず zu and all other purposes which require
the irrealis stem, e.g. 暑からず atsukarazu.
The volitional form is generally used to
convey supposition or presumption; there
are also set phrases which utilize this form, a
notable example being the volitional form of
良い yoi, 良かろう yokarō, a formal or
archaic expression for "very well" or "it would
be best to..." and the volitional form of 無
い nai, 無かろう nakarō, a formal or archaic
expression for "probably not so".
The imperative form is rarely used outside of
set expressions; a common usage is once
again with 良い yoi, and its imperative form
良かれ yokare, in idiomatic set expressions
like 良かれと思う yokare to omou (to wish
for the best, to have good intentions) or 良か
れ悪しかれ yokare-ashikare (good or bad,
for better or for worse, be it good or bad),
also making use of the imperative form of 悪
しい ashii (formerly the regular word for
"bad", since replaced by 悪い warui). The
imperative form of 無い nai, 無かれ nakare,
is also used in archaic speech to indicate
prohibition or a command not to do
something or to indicate that one must not
do something (also spelled 勿れ, 毋れ, 莫れ).
na-adjective[edit]
Adjectival nouns (na-adjectives) have a
basic inflection created by dropping the -
na and replacing it with the appropriate form
of the verb da, the copula. As with adjectival
verbs, adjectival nouns are also made more
polite by the use of です desu. です desu is
used in its role as the polite form of the
copula, therefore replacing da (the plain form
of the copula) in the plain form of these
adjectives.

present past present neg. past neg.

na adjective へんだ hen  へんだった he へんではない hen  へんではな

かった hen dew
 da n datta dewa[i] nai a nakatta

へんではあり
へんではありませ ませんでした 
polite na adj へんです h へんでした he ん hen dewa hen dewa
. en desu n deshita arimasen arimasen
deshita

1. ^ The では de wa in the conjugation of the

copula is often contracted in speech to じゃ ja.

な na adjectives have なら nara added to

them to change to conditional form, and just
like all other ない nai form inflections,
behave like an い i adjective when in
negative form, e.g. 簡単じゃなければ kantan
ja nakereba.
Because na-adjectives are simply suffixed
with the copula da, they, too, like i-
adjectives, have a full verb inflection
paradigm with six bases that obeys the
grammar surrounding Japanese verbs.

Irrealis (未 Continuativ Terminal Attributive Hypothetica Imperative

然形) e (連用形) (終止形) (連体形) l (仮定形) (命令形)

へんで hen 
へんだろ h
de へんだ hen  へんであ
en daro へんな hen  へんなら he
へんに hen  da れ hen de
へんでは h na n nara
ni へんなり he are
en dewa へんなる h へんなれ he
へんなり he n nari (obsol へんなれ h
へんなら h en naru (for n nare (obso
n nari (obsol ete or formal en nare (for
en nara (for mal or naru- lete or naru-
ete or formal or naru- mal or naru-
mal or naru- adjective) adjective)
or naru- adjective) adjective)
adjective)
adjective)

Similarly to i-adjectives, out of the multiple

irrealis stems, the 〜だろ daro irrealis stem
is only used with the volitional auxiliary suffix
〜う u, to form the volitional form suffixed
with volitional copula 〜だろう darō, used
primarily to present a supposition or
presumption. The 〜では dewa irrealis stem
is not considered a true irrealis stem
because it is simply the continuative stem
plus the case particle は wa, but is
nevertheless suffixied with standard negation
auxiliary 〜ない nai to form the negative form
(see the basic inflection above). The 〜な
ら nara irrealis stem is used with the formal
negation auxiliary 〜ず zu and all other uses
of the irrealis stem.
The 〜なる attributive form exists as a fossil
from the archaic ナリ活用 (nari katsuyō),
or nari-conjugation, the precursor to the
modern na-adjective. Generally only the 〜
な na form is used for attribution, but the 〜
なる form may be used to add a sense of
stress, intensity, profundity, formality, or an
imitation of archaic speech, such as 人類の
偉大なる遺産 jinrui no idai-naru isan, "the
great legacy of humanity", as compared to 人
類の偉大な遺産 jinrui no idai-na isan. It may
also be seen in set phrases, like in 親愛な
る shin'ai-naru, used to open and address a
letter to someone, much like English dear.
The 〜なる attributive form is also used
in naru-adjectives, like 単なる tan-naru or 聖
なる sei-naru. In almost all cases, these are
used exclusively as pre-noun attributives and
cannot be used in any of the other standard
forms of na-adjectives. In Modern Japanese,
they only serve to modify nouns and cannot
be used terminally nor even adverbially, as a
contrast with the similar taru-adjectives. It is
generally considered ungrammatical or
unnatural to use other forms with naru-
adjectives, even if technically syntactically
correct.
taru-adjective[edit]
taru-adjectives have much more limited
usage in Modern Japanese and generally
can only be used attributively with 〜た
る taru or adverbially with 〜と to. Generally,
to express past or negative forms, additional
other words or syntax are added to the
sentence rather than using the full verb
paradigm. However, nevertheless, taru-
 adjectives do have a full verb paradigm with
six bases that obeys the grammar
surrounding verbs in Japanese, which may
be used in archaic or highly formal speech.

Continuati
Irrealis Attributiv Hypothetic Imperativ
ve (連用 Terminal (終止形)
(未然形) e (連体形) al (仮定形) e (命令形)
形)

どうどう
たろ dōdō  どうどう
と dōdō to どうどう どうどう どうどう
taro どうどうたり dōd
どうどう たる dōdō  たれ dōdō  たれ dōdō 
どうどう たり dōdō t ō tari (obsolete)
たら dōdō  taru tare tare
ari
tara

The terminal form 〜たり tari is almost never

used. Generic words like 物 mono, 事 koto,
人 hito, and 方 kata are used as fill-ins with
the attributive form instead.
Adverb forms[edit]
Both adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns
can form adverbs. In the case of adjectival
verbs, い i changes to く ku:
atsuku naru "become hot"
and in the case of adjectival nouns,
な na changes to に ni:
hen ni naru "become strange"
There are also some words like たく
さん takusan and 全然 zenzen that
are adverbs in their root form:
全然分かりません zenzen wakarimasen "[I] absolutely
not understand."

adverb

i adjective はやく hayaku "quickly"

na adjective しずかに shizuka ni "quietly"
taru adjectiv
ゆうぜんと yuuzen to "calmly"
e

In a few cases, a 〜に form of a

word is common while a 〜な
form is rare or non-existent, as
in makoto-ni (誠に,
sincerely) – makoto (誠,
sincerity) is common,
but *makoto-na (×誠な, sincere) is
generally not used.
