Casual i-Adjectives
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.“ - Daniel Burnham
For casual i-adjectives, all you need to know are things you already know.
If you know these things, casual i-adjectives will be a cinch. Here are the rules. Let’s begin with the “formal” version you already know and love.
aあたらしい です
It is new
aあたらしかった です
It was new
aあたらしくない です
It is not new
aあたらしくなかった です
It was not new
Good so far? With casual i-adjectives, all you need to do is remove the です. That’s it. End the sentence there and don’t look back. So, if you want to make the above sentences “casual” all you have to do is remove the です.
aあたらしい
It’s new (casual)
aあたらしかった
It was new (casual)
aあたらしくない
It isn’t new (casual)
aあたらしくなかった
It wasn’t new (casual)
Then of course we can apply the AはB pattern to this and try it out for real.
aこの くるま は あたらしい です
This car is new
aこの くるま は あたらしい
This car is new (casual)
aなおこさん は あかかった です よ
Naoko-san was red
aなおこさん は あかかった よ
Naoko-san was red (casual)
aきょう は あつくなかった です
Today was not hot
aきょう は あつくなかった
Today wasn’t hot (casual)
See how that works? All you have to remember is that with i-adjectives you only need to drop the です to make it casual. Nothing else changes. If there’s something after the です (like a ね, よ, or what have you), you just leave it in there. When the です gets removed for casual, that ね or よ just slides over (you can see this in the second example).