Home Forums The Japanese Language is てんさい an i-adjective?

This topic contains 5 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  Anonymous 12 years, 5 months ago.

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  • #31459

    てんさい is making me wonder if it’s an i-adjective. With that being said, how can I confirm if something’s an i-adjective?

    #31460

    Joel
    Member

    てんさい meaning “genius”? It’s a noun.

    How do you tell if something’s an adjective? Context or spelling, pretty much, neither of which you’ll get if you’re just learning the words in hiragana in isolation. When you start to learn the kanji, (unconjugated) い-adjectives always end with an okurigana い. For example, 美味しい (おいしい) or 高い (たかい). Note, while every い-adjective ends with い, not every adjective ending with い is an い-adjective – for example, 嫌い (きらい) is a な-adjective.

    #31505

    Anonymous

    てんさい (genius) is a noun. But if you want to know if an adjective is an i-adjective or a na-adjective, if you search the adjective you want on jisho.org, it will either say ‘(adjective)’ or ‘(Na-adjective)’. On jisho, ‘(adjective)’ just means ‘i-adjective.’
    But the technical reason for why an adjective is a certain type of adjective is if it ends in い and is not part of the adjective’s kanji’s readings, then it is an i-adjective. If the い is within the reading, like 丁寧(ていねい), it is a Na-adjective.

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by  .
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by  .
    #31513

    Joel
    Member

    Yah, that’s not always correct – there’s exceptions. I gave one in my post above, for example. =P

    #31519

    So that would include daikirai or daisuki?

    #31523

    Anonymous

    Yes, だいきらい and だいすき would be Na-adjectives.

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