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#''keiyōshi'', or ''i'' adjectives, which have a Conjugating ending ''i'' which can become, for example, past, or negative. For example, ''atsui'' "to be hot": #:''atsui hi'' "a hot day". #''keiyōdōshi'', or ''na'' adjectives, which are followed by a form of the Copula . For example, ''hen na'' "to be strange": #:''hen na hito'' "a strange person". #''rentaishi'', also called true adjectives, such as ''onaji'' "the same" #:''onaji hi'' "the same day". Both ''keiyōshi'' and ''keiyōdōshi'' may Predicate sentences, and both inflect, having both past and negative forms. Thus, for some scholars, these words are not adjectives, but are a type of verb. However, they do not show the full range of Conjugation found in "regular" verbs. ''I'' adjectives are inflected by dropping the "i" from the end and replacing it with the appropriate ending. ''Na'' adjectives are inflected by dropping the "na" and replacing it with the appropriate form of the verb ''da'', meaning "be." There are regular ways to turn the both ''keiyōdōshi'' and ''keiyōshi'' into Adverb s (see below). The ''rentaishi'' are few in number, and unlike the other words, are strictly limited to modifying nouns. ''Rentaishi'' never predicate sentences. Examples include ''ookina'' 大きな "big" and ''onaji'' 同じ "same" (although there is also a noun, 同じ ''onaji'', that can be used before the Copula da/desu, as in 同じだ ''onaji da'' "It is the same"). PREDICATE FORMS Both ''keiyōshi'' and ''keiyōdōshi'' may Predicate sentences. For example, Gohan ga atsui. Kare wa hen da. ADVERB FORMS Both ''keiyōdōshi'' and ''keiyōshi'' form Adverb s, by following with ''ni'' in the case of ''keiyōdōshi'': hen ni naru and by changing ''i'' to ''ku'' in the case of ''keiyōshi'': atsuku naru POLITE FORMS Both ''keiyōshi'' and ''keiyōdōshi'' are made more polite by the use of ''desu'', but the way that ''desu'' is used is different. ''Desu'' is added directly after ''keiyōshi'' and has no Grammatical function; its only purpose is to make the utterance more polite (see Japanese Honorifics ). For ''keiyōdōshi'', ''desu'' is used instead of ''da''. TERMINOLOGY The Japanese word ''keiyōshi'' is used to denote an English adjective. It is worth noting that because the widespread study of Japanese is still relatively new in the Western world, there are no generally accepted English translations for the above parts of speech, with varying texts adopting different sets, and others extant not listed above. |
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