Using i-adjectives

This post involves me skipping ahead in my textbook, but I feel like I can't just accept that there are different types of adjectives without understanding WHY they are different.

There are two main categories of adjective: i-adjectives and na-adjectives. I'll describe how to identify and use na-adjectives later. 

I-adjectives

- end in i in present affirmative form

- the final i must be preceded by a, i, u, or o, but never by e

- in present affirmative form, they are followed by desu

- to create present negative form, replace the final i with ku, then add arimasen afterwards

- to create past affirmative form, replace the final i with katta and add desu

- to create past negative form, add deshita after the present negative

Examples of i-adjectives

Present affirmative - warui, takai, yasui, chiisai, akarui

Present negative - waruku arimasen, takaku arimasen, yasuku arimasen, chiisaku arimasen, akaruku arimasen

Past affirmative - warukatta desu, takakatta desu, yasukatta desu, chiisakatta desu, akarukatta desu

Past negative - waruku arimasen deshita, takaku arimasen deshita, yasuku arimasen deshita, chiisaku arimasen deshita, akaruku arimasen deshita

Some sentences:

Asagohan wa takai desu. (Breakfast is expensive.)

Hirugohan wa takaku arimasen. (Lunch is not expensive.)

Bangohan wa takakatta desu. (Dinner was expensive.)

Bangohan wa takaku arimasen deshita. (Dinner was not expensive.)

Adjectives that I don't actually know how to use

So in desire to learn vocabulary, I realized that I have rather neglected my grammar, so I don't actually know entirely how to use all these adjectives that I have been learning, but as my time is limited right now, I shall leave that for a later post. 

Today's words (though they're still at recognizable-but-not-memorized stage) are:

rippa - magnificent

heta - unskillful, bad (at)

omoshiroi - interesting

tsuyoi - strong

dare - who 

donata - who (more formal, more often used by women)

Also, in some random news, watashi no tomodachi Risa san who is a shufu is pregnant with her second child! How's that for a random mixed-language sentence?

Adjectives again

My other words of the day (because I have decided at this moment to be un-lazy):

shizuka - quiet

kirai - to dislike

daikirai - to dislike very much

joozu - skillful, good (at)

shashin - photograph

Kirai (dislike) and kirei (pretty or clean) are going to confuse me, I think. I'll have to think of some way of differentiating. 

Sentence of the day

Our sentence of the day:

Watashi wa Aveda de ogoto o shiteimasu.

I work at Aveda! Or...

わたしたちわ あべだで おごとを しています

... which is also true. :)

Eventually I will add some more vocabulary, but right now I'm being lazy. 

Yesterday's word of the day was:

ongaku - music

Ongaku o suki desu! 

I think that's a correct sentence. (I like music.)

Also, watashi no okaasan wa chuugokujin desu. Ojiisan mo chuugokujin desu. 

(My mother is Chinese. My grandpa is also Chinese.)

Useless stuff

K so I didn't actually learn anything useful in the last little while (I'm preparing for a flute exam and am preoccupied, or so goes my excuse), but I acquired a few new words today:

shufu - housewife (This one courtesy of my Japanese-learning friend Katie and our word of the day. Lisa san wa shufu desu! Lisa san wa watashi to Katie san no tomodachi desu.)

ojiisan - grandfather

oneesan - older sister

The family terms totally mess with my head. They're way too similar, darn it!

More katakana and exciting-ish news

I learned a bit more katakana recently, but forgot to post it. The n line!

ナ - na

ニ - ni (same as two in にほんご and ちゅごくご)

ヌ - nu

ネ - ne

ノ - no

A few other words that I learned:

せんもん - senmon - major

irigisu - English (I think this can't be written in hiragana, only katakana)

So my sentence of the day:

Watashi no senmon wa igirisu deshita. - My major was English. 

Also, one of my friends is learning Japanese in school this year! I am so excited! I love having people to share things with. :)

Katakana

In my holiday adventures, though I definitely slacked off in general about learning Japanese, I did do some work while on the plane (there and back!) so I learned a bit of katakana.

Here's what I know:

ア - a

イ - i

ウ - u (this one's easy because it looks almost exactly like う, just squared off)

エ - e

オ - o

カ - ka (same as か)

キ - ki (same as き)

ク - ku 

ケ - ke (why must ku and ke look so much alike?)

コ - ko

サ - sa 

シ - shi

ス - su (this one is everywhere, so it's easy to remember)

セ - se (very close to せ)

ソ - so

タ - ta

チ - chi

ツ - tsu

テ - te

ト - to

So I think these ones are fairly well embedded in my mind, at least in order, but シ, ソ, and ツ are giving me problems... they look way too much alike!