I adjective

A. So far you have learned two types of Japanese sentences : sentences ending in a verb in its polite form and sentences ending in a noun + desu. Now the third type is introduced.

Examples
1. Atama ga itai desu.
"Head is painful."(Lit.)
("I have a headache.")
2. Kao ga akai desu.
"Face is red,"(Lit.)
("My face is red.")
3. Hon ga yasui desu.
"Books are cheap."(Lit.)
("These books are cheap.")
What is common in these three sentences above is that :
1. all sentences end in desu;
2. all of them contain a word ending in -i directly followed by desu; and
3. a noun + ga always comes first and a word ending in -i + desu follows it.

A word ending in -i will be called an -i adjective in this textbook. A phrase ending in -i + desu is the polite form of an -i adjective. The polite form of

For the polite negative form, replace -i by -ku and add arimasen.
For the polite perfective form, replace -i by -katta and add desu.
For the polite perfective negative form, replace -i by -ku and add arimasen
deshita.

Examples
1. Atama ga itakatta desu.
"Head was painful."(Lit.)
("I had a headache.")
2. Atama ga itaku arimasen.
"Head is not painful."(Lit.)
("I don't have a headache.")
3. Kao ga akaku arimasen.
"Face is not red."(Lit.)
("My face isn't red.")
4. Kao ga akaku arimasen deshita.
"Face was not red."(Lit.)
5. Hon ga yasukatta desu.
"Books were cheap."(Lit.)
6. Hon ga yasuku arimasen deshita.
"Books were not cheap."(Lit.)
There is one exception to this rule : ii desu "be good." The negative form is yoku arimasen. The perfective form is yokatta desu, and yoku arimasen deshita is the perfective negative form.



Examples
1. Sensee ga yokatta desu.
"Teachers were good."(Lit.)
2. Hon ga yoku arimasen.
"The book is not good."
3. Gakusee ga yoku arimasen deshita.
"Students were not good."(Lit.)
B. The -i adjective modifies a noun. It always precedes a noun which it modifies. For this purpose, the polite form is inadequateGthe non-polite form is used instead. The table here shows the inflection of the polite form and the non]polite form of itai desu.

Polite form Non-polite form
Imperfective Affirmative itai desu itai
Negative itaku arimasen itaku nai
Perfective Affirmative itakatta desu itakatta
Negative itaku arimasen deshita itaku nakatta

In this lesson, learn the non-polite imperfective affirmative form only. The rest should be learned in Lesson 9, NOTES ON SENTENCE GRAMMAR III.

Examples
1. Kore wa yasui hon desu.
"This is a cheap book."
2. Arisu san wa ii gakusee desu.
"Alice san is a good student."
3. Oishii sakana o tabemashita.
"Someone* ate delicious fish."

4. Takai hon o kaimashita ka.
"Did you buy an expensive book?"
(*"Someone"may be the speaker.)