What does this mean?

[StorDuff]

Watashi no uchi wa chiisai desu.


My house is small
My small house


If it is 'my small house', how do I make it 'my house is small' ?


Arigato gozaimasu.

[Olivia]

watashi no uchi wa chiisai desu = my house is small

and...
my small house = watashi no chiisana uchi

ok? hope you understand it!
;)

[StorDuff]

thanks...I thought it meant my house is small, but wasn't quite sure.

I'm lost at chiisana however.

[johnny]

Hmm, in what way are you lost?

[StorDuff]

What is the difference between chiisai and chiisana?

[moyashi]

welcome and yoroshiku.

ugh, the first time I've studied in 2 years. I hate grammar.

na makes an adjective into a noun.
[In a verb case ie, taberuna (don't eat) na makes the verb into "DON'T"]


Yep, I looked it up. Thanks for making me study!

[Eirik]

"What is the difference between chiisai and chiisana?"

there are two types of adjectives, i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
-na is added to na-adjectives when a noun comes after it, as in
"chiisana uchi."

(If I remember correctly, chiisai is one of those weird adjectives that can appear as either a -na or an -i adjective... so in this particular case "chiisai uchi" could also be possible.)

Let me give you some examples of usage of the different kinds of adjectives:

i-adjective:
kono ie wa furui desu - this house is old
kono furui ie - this old house

as you see, i-adjectives do not change.

na-adjective:

kono ie wa suteki desu - this house is beautiful
kono suteki na ie - this beautiful house

you simply have to memorize which adjectives are -na and which are -i to be able to use them correctly, but there are some things that can help you.

for instance, -na adjectives are adjectives of foreign origin (most of them derive from Chinese, but these days there are some from English too.) words of Chinese origin typically look different from Japanese ones, which you'll start to notice as you learn more of the language. -i adjectives, not surprisingly, always end in -i in their plain form (hageshii - violent, ureshii - happy etc.)
and -i adjectives are of course native Japanese words.

(by the way, "uchi" refers to one's home or someone else's home, the word "ie" which also means house is used in other contexts.)

moyashi said: "na makes an adjective into a noun."
no, but nouns can be made into adjectives by adding "teki na" to them.
some words of this kind are common like "ippantekina" meaning "general.)"

I know my reply is overly elaborate, i hope you don't mind
I just noticed this thread is several months old, but might as well post my message since i took the time to write it... phew!

-Eirik

[StorDuff]

And thanks for filling in the gaps where I didn't study!

[StorDuff]

Originally posted by Eirik
"What is the difference between chiisai and chiisana?"

there are two types of adjectives, i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
-na is added to na-adjectives when a noun comes after it, as in
"chiisana uchi."

(If I remember correctly, chiisai is one of those weird adjectives that can appear as either a -na or an -i adjective... so in this particular case "chiisai uchi" could also be possible.)

Let me give you some examples of usage of the different kinds of adjectives:

i-adjective:
kono ie wa furui desu - this house is old
kono furui ie - this old house

as you see, i-adjectives do not change.

na-adjective:

kono ie wa suteki desu - this house is beautiful
kono suteki na ie - this beautiful house

you simply have to memorize which adjectives are -na and which are -i to be able to use them correctly, but there are some things that can help you.

for instance, -na adjectives are adjectives of foreign origin (most of them derive from Chinese, but these days there are some from English too.) words of Chinese origin typically look different from Japanese ones, which you'll start to notice as you learn more of the language. -i adjectives, not surprisingly, always end in -i in their plain form (hageshii - violent, ureshii - happy etc.)
and -i adjectives are of course native Japanese words.

(by the way, "uchi" refers to one's home or someone else's home, the word "ie" which also means house is used in other contexts.)

moyashi said: "na makes an adjective into a noun."
no, but nouns can be made into adjectives by adding "teki na" to them.
some words of this kind are common like "ippantekina" meaning "general.)"

I know my reply is overly elaborate, i hope you don't mind
I just noticed this thread is several months old, but might as well post my message since i took the time to write it... phew!

-Eirik

Elaborate is good..I'll have to read over that a few times to fully understand it.

This thread is only a few days old..perhaps the dates are wrong?

[Eirik]

ahh, I was looking at the wrong date ;) I'm new to this board, just registered today. you replied to my message just a few seconds after i posted it, not bad

-Eirik

[StorDuff]

I was replying to other one, then I noticed there was a bigger post under it..hehe. I'm also new, registered a month or two back, then got kind of bored.

[Olivia]

i agree with StorDuff, elaborate is good! the explanation made by Eirik was great!
but there are other adjectives with both -i and -na forms, such as kirei (beautiful), suteki (nice), ookii (big) etc.

[Eirik]

interesting. I have an idea of why words like "kirei" and "suteki" can be used as -i adjectives in addition to -na. Their kanji has on readings; meaning they derive from Chinese as far as I know, and therefore are -na adjectives. but they end in -i so it could be easy to think they are -i adjectives because of their semblance.

"ookii" and "chiisai" however have kun readings, so that theory doesn't explain these.

maybe this sounds awfully boring, but i find it interesting

-Eirik

[moyashi]

hmmm ... the kanji explanation by Eirik makes sense. I've just absorbed most of these by ear so like a native speaker would use most properly without knowing why.

[cacawate]

Kirei and suteki cannot be used as i-adj. Kirei is an exception to the "i na" rule as it DOES end with an i but is still considered a na-adj. Suteki should be obvious because you cannot conjugate it into an adv. using the -ku rule

i.e.
○　ookii = big
○　ookiku = largely
○　kirei na = pretty
X　kireku = doesn't exist
kirei would then turn into:
○　kirei ni = prettily

-Jeff

[Glenn]

Originally Posted by cacawate

Kirei and suteki cannot be used as i-adj. Kirei is an exception to the "i na" rule as it DOES end with an i but is still considered a na-adj. Suteki should be obvious because you cannot conjugate it into an adv. using the -ku rule

Well, "kirei" only appears to be an exception when you look at it in romaji, but it does have kanji (綺麗) and, as you can see, there are no okurigana. That's why I was taught that the -i adjectives are those that end in -ai, -ii, -ui, and -oi.

i.e.
○　ookii = big
○　ookiku = largely
○　kirei na = pretty
X　kireku = doesn't exist
kirei would then turn into:
○　kirei ni = prettily

-Jeff

Just to add (and maybe confuse, sorry if that's the case) "kireku" may exist in some dialects (I haven't confirmed, but remember my Japanese teacher saying that). It's always hard to say that something doesn't exist in Japanese due to the wide variety of dialects. For example, "jouzu" is a "na" adjective, but in some dialects it can be inflected "jouzuku" in the adverbial form, as opposed to the standard "jouzu ni." Whenever I explain Japanese grammar to people, I like to work on the assumption that we are talking about Standard Japanese, although that isn't always the case. But every now and then I like to throw in that disclaimer, just in case someone from Akita or wherever comes along and says "we do say X." So anyway, "kireku" doesn't exist in Standard Japanese. If you ever do see it, assume that it is a dialect.