Grammar › Basics › い & な adjectives
い & な adjectives
Japanese has two kinds of adjective. い-adjectives change their own ending; な-adjectives behave like nouns — here's how each one bends.
The short version
An い-adjective ends in い and does its own conjugating: 高い → 高くない → 高かった. A な-adjective works like a noun: it needs な to touch a following noun (静かな町) and だ／です to end a sentence. You never add だ to an い-adjective.
い-adjectives — negative & past
Drop the final い and add くない for the negative, かった for the past. No です needed to be a full casual sentence.
Joining with 〜くて
To link an い-adjective to what follows ("… and …"), swap い for くて. It chains descriptions or gives a reason.
な-adjectives — the な that touches a noun
A な-adjective needs な before the noun it describes. Otherwise it conjugates exactly like a noun: 静かだ / 静かじゃない / 静かだった.
Watch out
Next: あります・います → · なる — to become → · All grammar