conjugation of adjetives, nouns and verbs

There are three types of sentences in Japanese: those ending in an i-adjetive, those ending in a u-verb, and those endong in anything else.

	i-adjetives	u-verbs	no-nouns + copula and na-adjectives + copula
present	kuloi"is black"	mílu"sees"	BANANAda "is (a) banana"
past	kulokatta"was black"	míta"saw"	BANANAdatta "was (a) banana"
negative present	kuloku nái"isn't black"	mínai"doesn't see"	BANANAjánai "isn't (a) banana"

To negate the past or to past the negation, just take the present negative and replace its final i with katta:

past negative

kuloku nákatta"wasn't black"

mínakatta"didn't see"

BANANAjanakatta "wasn't (a) banana"

NA-adjetives like kilei work exactly like BANANA: kilei da "it's clean/neat/beautiful/nice", kilei jánai "isn't clean", kileidatta "was clean", kilei janakatta "wasn't clean".

subjective adjectives
How to Read Japanese Manga
Cat Speaks

Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/manga/canv.en.html
Last revised: 2008-10-13