Home Forums The Japanese Language Past tense な-adjectives BEFORE a noun

This topic contains 5 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  ZoomlionX2 6 years, 6 months ago.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #50520

    ZoomlionX2
    Member

    Not quite sure how to ask this clearly, but I’m looking for the な-adjective equivalent of this い-adjective usage (from the lesson http://www.textfugu.com/season-4/i-adj-conjugation/3-3/#top):

    さむい日
    Cold day

    さむかった日
    Day that was cold

    あつい日
    Hot day

    あつかった日
    Day that was hot

    So, I’m not looking for, for example:
    くるま は あんぜん でした
    The car was safe

    I’m also not looking for this:
    あんぜんな くるま は 。。。でした
    The safe car was

    I’m looking for the correct way to say something like this:
    あんぜんな (?)くるま は 。。。
    The car that was safe…

    I hope my question makes some semblance of sense.

    #50521

    Joel
    Member

    だった. =)

    あんぜんだった くるま

    Also, worry not – your question was perfectly clear.

    #50524

    ZoomlionX2
    Member

    Thanks Joel!

    #50525

    ZoomlionX2
    Member

    Follow-up question:

    Does this mean that you only add な when the adjective is before the noun in polite speech? In other words, you drop the な in casual when the adjective precedes the noun?

    #50526

    Joel
    Member

    Nah, you still need the な, but only when it’s positive and non-past – it disappears when you start conjugating. The な is used to connect な-adjectives to nouns, just as の is used to connect nouns to other nouns.

    #50529

    ZoomlionX2
    Member

    Thank-you!

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.