Dialogue 1

Michael is checking apartment listings.

Vocabulary

Grammar Notes

3-1-1 Adjective Sentences

All adjectives in Japanese end in –i (Non Past), -katta (Past), and -ku. takai expensive

takaku nai not expensive

To make the Past form, change –i to –katta. For the negative form, change nai to nakatta.

takakatta was expensive

takaku nakatta was not expensive

To make a formal style adjective sentence, add desu.

Takai desu. It’s expensive. Takaku nai des. It’s not expensive. Takakatta desu. It was expensive. Takaku nakatta desu. It was not expensive.

In Lessons 1 and 2 verb sentences and noun sentences were introduced. With the adjective sentences introduced in this lesson you have now seen all three Japanese sentence types. The chart below shows the forms that have been introduced so far.

Table 4. Examples of affirmative and negative non-past types of verb, noun, and adjective sentences in Japanese.

Table 5. Affirmative and negative past types of verb, noun, and adjective sentences in Japanese.

The adjective ii has special forms. This is the only exception in the entire class of adjectives.

Ii desu. – It’s good.

Yoku nai desu. – It’s not good.

Yokatta desu. – It was good.

Yoku nakatta desu. – It wasn’t good.

Yoku is one of the most commonly used adverbs and was already introduced in Lesson 1 as in

yoku wakarimasu, yoku tabemasu, etc. Yokatta desu nee is a common response to good news.

3-1-2 Adjective + Noun

In Lesson 2, you saw two ways of extending a noun into a noun phrase. One way is to modify a noun by another, as in the sequence /X no Y/ in the phrase Amerika no kaisha ‘American company.’ Another example is the kono-sono-ano-dono group that precedes a noun, as in ano kaisha ‘that company’. These two ways can be combined as in kono Amerika no kaisha ‘this American company.’

Adjectives can directly modify a noun to make a noun phrase (no need for the particle no).

takai keitai expensive cellphone

takaku nai keitai cellphone that is not expensive

It’s possible to combine more than one adjective or other modifying elements to extend a noun phrase.

chiisai takai keitai small, expensive cellphone

kono Amerika no chiisai takai keitai this small, expensive American cellphone

Note that all the modifying elements occur before the main noun, and that the particle no must be attached to a noun modifier wherever it occurs. The order of modifying elements is rather free, unlike in English, where there are certain restrictions.

chiisai takai kono Amerika no keitai this small, expensive American cellphone

kono watashi no keitai this cellphone of mine

watashi no kono keitai this cellphone of mine

3-1-3 arimasu ‘there is X’

The verb arimasu means ‘there is’ or ‘I have’. It indicates inanimate existence such as objects, plants, ideas, events, etc. A different verb is used for people and animals and will be introduced later. There are two negative forms for arimasu: arimasen and nai desu. The latter is less formal.

As we have seen so far, nai desu is part of the negative forms for noun and adjective sentences. Arimasen can substitute for nai desu in these forms and sounds a little more elegant.

Sumaho ja nai desu.→ Sumaho ja arimasen. It’s not a smartphone.

Takaku nai desu.→ Takaku arimasen. It’s not expensive.

Similarly, the Past form arimasen deshita can substitute for nakatta desu.

Sumaho ja nakatta desu. → Sumaho ja arimasen deshita. It wasn’t a smartphone.

Takaku nakatta desu.→ Takaku arimasen deshita. It wasn’t expensive.

The chart below shows all the forms including these alternatives.

Table 6. All the past forms of “arimasen” – affirmative and negative – as a verb sentence, noun sentence, and adjective sentence.

 Table 7. All the non-past forms of “arimasen” – affirmative and negative – as a verb sentence, noun sentence, and adjective sentence.

Note the difference between the following sentences.

Kaisha ja arimasen / Kaisha ja nai desu. It’s not a company. (Identity)

Kaisha wa arimasen / Kaisha wa nai desu. There is no company. (Existence)