Cat is Clean

Some Japanese nouns translate to English adjectives, as for instance kilei きれい, which means "pretty, clean, neat". In Japanese kilei きれいis a noun because it works like TAAZANN ターザン:

kileida きれいだ	= is pretty
kileijánai きれいじゃない	= isn't pretty
kileidatta きれいだった	= was pretty

It doesn't work like kuloi くろい, which forms its negative and its past in an entirely different way.

These words are called "na-adjectives" because most of them are rendered into English as adjectives (there are some exceptions like iya いや, which is a na-adjective but means "I don't like" or "I don't want").

Cat Speaks
How to Read Japanese Manga
Cat is Black

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