To Think About Adjectives
“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.” – Albert Einstein
As you already know, there are two main types of adjectives: な adjectives and い adjectives. They both behave differently, so we’ll split them up into two sections. The first section, however, is really simple. You’ve already done this with the noun section of this chapter.
な Adjectives
な adjectives behave exactly like nouns. You add a だ after the な adjective (instead of a です), and you go on your merry way. Basically, you can treat these the same as nouns.
aこういちさん が 好き だ と 思います
I think I like Koichi
aボビーさん は ばか だった と 思った
I thought Bobby was stupid
aこの はな は きれい だ と 思わない
I don’t think this flower is pretty
aこの ペン は べんり だ と 思う
I think this pen is convenient
aこの しごと は たいへん だ と 思った
I thought this job is hard
As you can see, it works in exactly the same way as the nouns we just learned. The tricky part, of course, is remembering which adjectives are な adjectives and which ones aren’t. Speaking of adjectives that aren’t な adjectives…
い Adjectives
い adjectives are known to be a little more troublesome, but when it comes to this grammar point they should be a breeze.
The trick with い adjectives is simply to drop the です／だ／whatever all together. It’s just plain い adjective + と思います. If you can remember this, you’ll be fine. If you can’t, then you’ll be slightly grammatically incorrect.
a犬 は かわいい と 思う
I think dogs are cute
aあの 本 は あたらしくない と 思う
I think that book over there is not new
aあの 本 は あたらしい と 思った
I thought that book is new
aこの えいが は 面白かった と 思う
I think this movie was interesting
a「やすいな！」と 思った
I thought “it’s cheap!”
The hard part with い adjectives is remembering to drop the だ entirely. It isn’t a huge problem if you don’t drop it or anything, and it’ll be totally understandable, but it’s better to do it the right way, yeah?
Make sure you take notes to remember these rules (and keep taking them) so that you can reference them if you need to. When everything up above was nice and understandable, move on to the next section. We’re hitting verbs now.