In N5 Lesson 1: 1/12, I am taught:
“Caution, だ should never be attached to the end of い-Adjectives.”
But then one of the following examples is 綺麗だ。
Isn’t 綺麗 an い-Adjective?
I’m new to Japanese learning! Thanks for any insight you can provide!
1 Like
No, it’s a な-adjective. If the い is part of the kanji, then it’s 100% a な-adj. E.g. 美しい is an い-adj (because you can literally see the い kana), but 有名 is a な-adj.
The other way around, there aren’t many exceptions, I can only think of two (off the top of my head, there might be others): 嫌い and 幸い are な-adjectives, even though they actually end with the い kana.
6 Likes
The い-adjective lesson is just a few lessons ahead of where you currently are, but you might as well just read it now to clear up any confusion.
綺麗 is actually specifically brought up in that lesson.
Since you said you’re new to learning Japanese I’ll link two articles:
い-adjectives & な-adjectives.
I think Tofugu has good grammar articles with explanations that are easy to understand (doesn’t go too in-depth), so I would also recommend you bookmark their grammar section. It has a search bar, to make grammar points easier to find.
6 Likes
Others have already answered this but I just wanted to say reading misunderstandings like this makes me nostalgic for when I started studying. Its only been 2 years but it feels like so long, and while I am still far from fluent I think back on the beginning and realise how much progress I have actually made. Im sure you will probably reach my level much quicker than it took me as well as I didnt start with bunpro.
7 Likes
Wow, it’s cool to be part of such a helpful community.
Thank you @hali_g for the helpful explanation! It all makes sense now. 
Thanks @FubuMiOkaKoro for the recommendations and links. I will check them out.
Thanks @louish02 for the encouragement.
4 Likes
The example used in the い-Adjectives lesson for remembering the difference has really helped me. That basically, if you can use the word “very” in front of the word, then it’s a な-adjective and not a い-Adjective.
Very pretty (きれい)
Sounds natural. So then I assume it must be a な-adjective. I’m also new to all of this too, though!
1 Like
The example used in the い-Adjectives lesson for remembering the difference has really helped me. That basically, if you can use the word “very” in front of the word, then it’s a な-adjective and not a い-Adjective.
Could you tell us where did you read that? Because that’s absolutely not true. And in general, what sounds good in English usually has nothing to do with Japanese.
E.g.:
- 美しい also means pretty/beautiful (with a slightly different nuance than きれい), and it’s a い-adj
- かわいい (い-adj) = cute, “very cute” is natural
- 賢い (い-adj) = smart, “very smart/very clever” is natural
1 Like
They are misremembering. とても can be used as a basic way to tell な-adjectives and nouns apart, not い-adjectives.
I think that’s what they meant to write.
2 Likes