2025.08.30 2025.08.31

Your First Japanese Adjectives: 10 Essential Words to Describe Your World

sochakiran

Welcome back, language learner! You’ve learned your first 10 nouns, and now it’s time to learn how to describe them. That’s where adjectives come in!

Adjectives are words like “big,” “small,” “beautiful,” or “new.” They add color and detail to your sentences, making your Japanese sound much more natural and expressive.

In this lesson, we’ll introduce the 10 most essential adjectives for beginners. We’ll also touch on a very important point: the two types of Japanese adjectives (“i-adjectives” and “na-adjectives”). Don’t worry, it’s simple!

Let’s start adding some color to your Japanese!

Two Types of Adjectives!

i-adjectives (い形容詞): These words end with the Hiragana character い (i). (e.g., ōkii)
na-adjectives (な形容詞): These words don’t end with い (i). To use them before a noun, you add な (na). (e.g., kirei na hana – a beautiful flower) We’ll label each word so you can see the difference!

1. 大きい (おおきい)

Romaji: ōkii
Meaning: big, large
Type: i-adjective
Example: これはおおきいいえです。(Kore wa ōkii ie desu.) – This is a big house.
✨ Kira Kira Point: The opposite is 小さい (chiisai). Remembering words in pairs is a great way to learn faster!

2. 小さい (ちいさい)

Romaji: chiisai
Meaning: small, little
Type: i-adjective
Example: ちいさいねこはかわいいです。(Chiisai neko wa kawaii desu.) – Small cats are cute.
✨ Kira Kira Point: Notice the little い at the end? That’s your clue that it’s an i-adjective!

3. 新しい (あたらしい)

Romaji: atarashii
Meaning: new
Type: i-adjective
Example: あたらしいほんをかいます。(Atarashii hon o kaimasu.) – I will buy a new book.
✨ Kira Kira Point: In Japan, the new school year and business year start in April, a time filled with new things and new beginnings, often marked by the blooming of sakura.

4. 古い (ふるい)

Romaji: furui
Meaning: old
Type: i-adjective
Example: このでんしゃはふるいです。(Kono densha wa furui desu.) – This train is old.
✨ Kira Kira Point: Be careful! You can use furui for things, but it’s impolite to use it for people. To say an “old person,” you would use a different phrase.

5. 良い (いい / よい)

Romaji: ii / yoi
Meaning: good
Type: i-adjective
Example: いいてんきですね。(Ii tenki desu ne.) – It’s good weather, isn’t it?
✨ Kira Kira Point: This is a special one! In the present tense, we usually say ii, but when we change its form (like to the past tense), we use the yoi version. For example, “it was good” is yokatta.

6. 悪い (わるい)

Romaji: warui
Meaning: bad
Type: i-adjective
Example: わたしはあたまがわるいです。(Watashi wa atama ga warui desu.) – I have a headache. (Literally: My head is bad.)
✨ Kira Kira Point: When you bump into someone, you can say “warui warui” as a very casual “my bad!” to your friends.

7. 可愛い (かわいい)

Romaji: kawaii
Meaning: cute
Type: i-adjective
Example: このいぬはかわいい！ (Kono inu wa kawaii!) – This dog is cute!
✨ Kira Kira Point: “Kawaii” is a massive part of modern Japanese culture, influencing everything from fashion and food to company mascots!

8. 綺麗 (きれい)

Romaji: kirei
Meaning: beautiful; clean
Type: na-adjective
Example: きれいなさくらですね。(Kirei na sakura desu ne.) – They are beautiful cherry blossoms, aren’t they?
✨ Kira Kira Point: Notice that kirei ends in い but it’s a na-adjective! This is a common exception. It can mean both “beautiful” (like a person or scenery) and “clean” (like a room).

9. 元気 (げんき)

Romaji: genki
Meaning: energetic, healthy, lively
Type: na-adjective
Example: わたしはげんきです。(Watashi wa genki desu.) – I am fine / I am energetic.
✨ Kira Kira Point: The phrase “O-genki desu ka?” (お元気ですか？) is the classic “How are you?” in Japanese. Now you know the meaning of the core word!

10. 静か (しずか)

Romaji: shizuka
Meaning: quiet
Type: na-adjective
Example: しずかないえがすきです。(Shizuka na ie ga suki desu.) – I like quiet houses.
✨ Kira Kira Point: The value of quietness and peace is important in Japanese culture, from tranquil temples and gardens to the quiet efficiency of the densha.

Conclusion: You Can Now Describe Things!

Fantastic work! By learning these 10 adjectives, you’ve unlocked a whole new level of expression. You can now say more than just “This is a cat.” You can say, “This is a small, cute cat”!

Practice using these adjectives with the nouns you learned in our last lesson. The more you mix and match, the faster you’ll improve.

Keep up the amazing work!

#adjectives #beginner #learning Japanese #vocabulary

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