Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1

54 Grammar Notes 3-1-1 Adjective Sentences All adjectives in Japanese end in - i (Non Past) , -katta (Past) , and - ku. takai expensive takaku nai not expensive To make the Past form, change - i to - katta . For the negative form, change nai to nakatta . takakatta was expensive takaku nakatta was not expensive To make a formal style adjective sentence, add desu . Takai desu. It’s expensive. Takaku nai des. It’s not expensive. Takakatta desu. It was expensive. Takaku nakatta desu. It was not expensive. In Lessons 1 and 2 verb sentences and noun sentences were introduced. With the adjective sentences introduced in this lesson you have now seen all three Japanese sentence types. The chart below shows the forms that have been introduced so far. Table 4. Examples of affirmative and negative non-past types of verb, noun, and adjective sentences in Japanese. Non-past – Affirmative Non-Past – Negative Verb Sentence Wakarimasu. Wakarimasen. Noun Sentence Nihon desu. Nihon ja nai desu. Adjective Sentence Takai desu. Takaku nai desu.