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Japanese / English translation exercises
English / Japanese translation exercises

The verbal adjective should be considered a verb as it can be used as the closing verb of a sentence. The verbal adjectives also have all the conjugations normal verbs have save one: the meireikei, or imperative form, which I mentioned briefly in the last lesson.

The Rentaikei
The rentaikei of verbal adjectives occurs in the same positions and with the same functions as the rentaikei of verbs. So far we've only seen the rentaikei as the closing verb of the sentence, but it can also be the closing verb of the adjectival clause. Especially the verbal adjective is used a lot in this way.

As with the verbs, the rentaikei of the verbal adjectives are the basic conjugation under which you would be able to find it in the dictionary. The rentaikei of verbal adjectives always ends on an い (i).

The verbal adjective as a closing verb:

The verbal adjective as an adjective:

The Ren'youkei
The ren'youkei is formed by replacing the final い (i) with く (ku). The ren'youkei can function as an adverb.

Verbal Adjectives		to be high		to be big		to be new		to be small
Rentaikei		高い takai		大きい ookii		新しい atarashii		小さい chiisai
Ren'youkei		高く takaku		大きく ookiku		新しく atarashiku		小さく chiisaku

The past tense
The auxiliary negative verb ない (nai) is also a verbal adjective, and as mentioned in Lesson 5, the past tense of this verb is なかった (nakatta). This form is constructed from the ren'youkei of the adjective + あった (atta) which is the past tense of ある (aru). Then a contraction occurs where the く + あった = かった (ku + atta = katta).

なく + あった = なかった
(naku + atta = nakatta)

This construction is the same for all verbal adjectives.

高く + あった = 高かった
(takaku + atta = takakatta)

The -te form
The -te form is made by simply adding て (te) to the ren'youkei. The functions are the same as with normal verbs.

高く + て = 高くて
(takaku + te = takakute)

The negative form
As with verbs the negative form of the verbal adjective is constructed by adding ない (nai) to the mizenkei (未然形).

Verbal Adjectives		to be high / to be expensive		to be big / to be large		to be new		to be small
Rentaikei		高い takai		大きい ookii		新しい atarashii		小さい chiisai
Ren'youkei		高く takaku		大きく ookiku		新しく atarashiku		小さく chiisaku
Mizenkei		高く takaku		大きく ookiku		新しく atarashiku		小さく chiisaku

The polite form
The verbal adjective can be made polite by placing です (desu) after the rentaikei of the adjective.

Common errors:
The verbal adjective has proven to be a difficult grammatical structure to get used to. These are common mistakes made:

The verbal adjective cannot be combined with the verb だ (da). です (desu) is only used as a polite form and is not conjugated when used in combination with a verbal adjective.

Combinations with なる (naru) & する (suru)
The basic meanings of なる (naru) and する (suru) are "to become" and "to do". When combined with the ren'youkei conjugation you can describe a process.