Making Sense of Japanese Grammar

9. Dictionary forms of all Japanese adjectives end with -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui

9 Dictionary forms of all Japanese adjectives end with -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui No dictionary form of an adjective in Japanese ends with a single vowel or the sequence -ei. Dictionary forms of all adjectives in Japanese end with -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui. The first vowel of these sequences is part of the “root,” and the second vowel is the present tense marker. (The fact that no dictionary form of an adjective ends with -ei has something to do with the history of Japanese: /e/ has been least utilized throughout the history of Japanese, and some linguists suggest that old Japanese had only four vowels /i, a, o, u/.) By knowing that dictionary forms of all adjectives in Japanese end with -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui, you can tell that a certain form is not an adjective. kirei “beautiful” and shitsurei “rude, ” for instance, have -ei at the end. You can safely conclude that they are not adjectives. Likewise, you can tell that dame “useless,” daijoobu “fine,” and genki “healthy” are not adjectives, because they have only one vowel at the end. futsuu “ordinary” is not an adjective because the last vowel is not -i. And, zannen “regrettable” is not an adjective because it does not end with a vowel. A word of caution, however. You cannot be certain that a form is an adjective from the way it sounds because some non-adjectives also end with -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui. For example, hantai “opposite” has -ai at the end, but it is not an adjective; it is a noun. Checking your comprehension: Identify which of the following words is definitely not an adjective. Explain why. tekitoo “appropriate” reisei “composed” tadashii “correct” koodo “advanced” For related topics, see also Units 8 and 10. 16 ...