Some な-adjectives can function like a noun, and serve as the subject or object of a sentence. な-adjectives can do a little more than い-adjectives though. Just like い-adjectives, な-adjectives can be used in two positions to describe a noun: at the end of a sentence, and right before a noun. The Position of な-adjectives in a Sentence I’m not good at chess, but I’m not bad at it either.That teacher’s handwriting isn’t very neat, is it?.To do this, you can choose from a few different negative markers, such as じゃない and ではない. Making a な-adjective negative tells us that the quality described by the word is not true.

In my parents’ day and age, disco was super popular.When I was a child, this town was quiet, but now it’s lively.This means that the quality was true before, but is no longer true at this point in time. When you want to indicate that the quality described by the な-adjective is in the past, you’ll use だった or でした to make it happen. In this case, present tense is assumed, even though there is no explicit marker of it, like だ or です: We can also choose to end a sentence with the な-adjective itself, which is common in casual spoken Japanese. If we’re talking about a weekday, the train will be more convenient than a car.This tells us that the quality described by the adjective is true now or in the future. Just like nouns, な-adjectives can take だ or です to indicate that they are in the present tense. This is a trait that な-adjectives share with nouns, and is one reason why they are often called “nominal (noun-like) adjectives” or “adjectival nouns” in linguistics. Unlike い-adjectives, な-adjectives cannot be conjugated to show tense-present or past-and truth value-positive or negative. な-adjectives earn their name from な, which is used to attach a な-adjective to a noun. For example, a famous person is 有名な人, a convenient tool is 便利なツール, and a safe place is 安全な場所. The main function of な-adjectives is to describe nouns. な-adjectives are one of two kinds of adjectives in Japanese (the other being い-adjectives). Treating な-adjectives like い-adjectives.The Position of な-adjectives in a Sentence.Their main function is to describe nouns, but many can function as nouns themselves. な-adjectives are one type of adjective in Japanese.

What is adjective in grammar