notes

  • Japanese sentences have three fundamental types depending on their engine:
    • う, verb sentences (A does B)
    • だ, noun sentences (A is B)
    • い, adjective sentences (A is B)
  • all of these three types of engines can be used as an adjective

    verbs as adjectives

  • any verb in any tense can be used like an adjective
    • ex: 「人が歌った。」 means “Person sang.” and 「歌った人が寝ている。」 means “Person who sang is sleeping.”
    • entire verbs sentences can be adjectival
    • ex: 「辞書を食べた犬がヤンチャだ。」 means “Dog who ate the dictionary is bad.”

      nouns as adjectives

  • when using a noun as an adjective, use な as it is the connective form of だ
    • ex: 「ヤンチャな犬が寝ている。」 means “Dog who is bad is sleeping.”
  • not all nouns are adjectival

    the の particle

  • the の particle is the possessive particle
  • the の particle works like “‘s” in English
    • ex: 「私の靴」 means “my shoes”
  • the の particle can be used to describe things that belong to a group
    • ex: 「ピンク色」 means “pink color” but cannot be used as an i-adjective or a na-adjective, so use 「ピンク色の物」 instead to describe a pink thing

      resources

  • youtube