な Adjective After A Noun
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” - William Shakespeare
The cool thing about this one is that you already know how to use it, though your knowledge is specific to すき and きらい. With すき and きらい, you are able to come up with patterns like this:
水がすきです
(I) like water
木がきらいです
(I) hate trees
As you just learned, すき and きらい are な adjectives. Take a look at the two example sentences above. The nouns (in this case 水 and 木) are coming before the な adjectives (すき and きらい). That means (as you’ve learned) there is no な. For example, you would not say “木がきらいなです.”
With other な adjectives, it’s the same thing. You can essentially swap すき and きらい with the な adjectives from your list. One thing that might be a little different is the は and が particle usage. With すき and きらい, the が particle is pretty prevalent (though は is also used, you just don’t see it as much). With other adjectives, I think the は particle is probably going to be more common. In the end, though, you have to take a look at it in terms of context. Remember, if the は particle is used, it emphasizes what comes after it and talks about something. If the が particle is used it is emphasizing what comes before it, and is identifying something. These are just basic guides – it’s up to you to see the context in your sentences and figure out which is right and which is wrong (don’t fret, it’s not easy and takes practice!).
Let’s take a look at some more examples, switching すき and きらい out with other な adjectives.
すし は きれい です
Sushi is pretty
In this sentence, we used the な adjective きれい (pretty) and used it to talk about sushi (which is why we used the は particle).
マオさん は ピアノ が 上手 ですね！
Mao is good at the piano, isn’t he? / As for Mao, (he is) good at the piano
In this sentence, we’re identifying that Mao is good at the piano (which is why we’re using が after the subject). Also, notice the sentence ender ね on there! Remember what that means?
それ は べんり ですね
That is convenient, isn’t it?
In this case, we’re talking about “that” (whatever that is… depends on what you were talking about before), so we use the は particle. We already know what “that” is so we don’t need to identify it – the emphasis and the important part is what comes after the は (the べんり).
おまえ は がんこ です！
You are stubborn!
Just throwing out a different “you” than you normally see. If you’re calling someone stubborn, you might as well go all the way and make the “you” a little more degrading and casual as well. It’s not like you’re out to be polite at this point (We could make this even more casual, but you haven’t gotten to that lesson yet).
Basically, all we’re doing is switching すき and きらい out with other な adjectives (that you’ve just learned). It’s not quite as simple as that, of course, since you have to be more careful now about your は and が particles, but essentially it’s the same thing. As long as you understood the すき and きらい lessons, there shouldn’t be anything new here. Just a little extra practice and a some focus on は and が.
Next we’re going to expand on these sentences a little bit, and learn something new (though, as usual, it’s kind of not new, you just didn’t know you knew it already).