Conjugating な Adjectives
“A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.” - New York Proverb
The great thing about な adjectives is the way they conjugate. い adjective conjugation is a pain. な adjective conjugation is a breeze, as long as you paid attention in Season 1. They conjugate exactly the same as nouns do. In a lot of ways, な adjectives are very similar to nouns in fact, which is going to make things a lot more simple.
Present / Future: です
Past: でした
Negative: じゃありません
Past Negative: じゃありませんでした
I hope those look familiar. You already saw な adjectives being conjugated by です (on the last page), so let’s practice a little more before we get to the hard stuff. Now any above conjugation is game:
マクドナルド は べんり です
McDonald’s is convenient
マイケルさん の りょうり は へた でした
Michael’s cooking was unskillful
あの ジェットコースター は きけん でした
That roller coaster (over there) was dangerous
ひとみさん は ばか じゃありません
Hitomi is not stupid
すし が すき じゃありませんでした
(I) did not like sushi
Conjugation is super easy with な adjectives, and probably the least of your worries. Before moving on, I’ve put together a worksheet so you can practice. Try to use all four conjugations and complete the provided prompts. I’ll give you an object (a person, a thing, etc.,) and your job will be to describe it using a な adjective. If you’re having trouble, you can always post it in the forum and ask for others to help you (a lot of smart people there!), or you can post it up on Lang-8 to get corrections from native speakers there (more on Lang-8 later this season).
After completing the worksheet, you should have a pretty good understanding of how な adjectives work (at least when they come after the noun). You should also feel pretty good about この, その, and あの. If you need to review, please do, but in the next page we’re going to go over the other kind of な adjective, which is where things start becoming a little more tricky (and abstract!). One recommendation would be to do a quick review of the の particle chapter, since な adjectives actually act somewhat similar to nouns using の. It’s not the same, but it’ll get your brain primed for this concept and lesson. If you feel good about the の particle, however, by all means. Hit the 前 button!