In English, a lot of adverbs and nouns come from adjectives. For example, the adverb “slowly” is built from the adjective “slow,” and the noun “kindness” is built from the adjective “kind.” In Japanese, it’s also possible to turn adjectives into adverbs and nouns! Just like in English, this is mostly done by adding or changing endings. For example:
In this post, we’ll talk about how to turn different kinds of Japanese adjectives into nouns and adverbs. Along the way, we’ll talk about how the different ways to do so can impact the meaning or grammar of the word you create. Let’s have a look!
How to make Japanese adverbs from adjectives?
In Japanese, you can usually turn an adjective into an adverb with an ending: either 〜く transcribed ku or 〜に transcribed ni. Typically 〜く transcribed ku is added to i-adjectives while 〜に transcribed ni is added to na-adjectives. Let’s have a look at exactly how you can use these two endings.
Adverbs that come from i-adjectives
To turn an i-adjective into an adverb, change the ending 〜い transcribed i to 〜く transcribed ku.
Here are some examples illustrating how you might use these three adverbs in a sentence. Notice that, like an adverb, they provide additional information about an action or situation instead of a noun!
Adverbs that come from na-adjectives
To turn a na-adjective into an adverb, just add 〜に transcribed ni directly to the dictionary form.
Here are some examples of how you can use these adverbs in a sentence.
How to turn Japanese adjectives into nouns?
In Japanese, there are three main ways to form a noun from an adjective:
Add the suffix 〜さ transcribed sa
Add the suffix 〜み transcribed mi
Delete the ending 〜い transcribed i → color adjectives only!
You’ll use each method in slightly different circumstances. Let’s go through them one-by-one!
When to add 〜さ [sa] to an adjective?
We use the Japanese suffix 〜さ transcribed sa much like you might use the ending “-ness” in English: it is added to an adjective to turn it into a noun referring to a quality. We’ll often use these nouns to talk about some measure of that quality, much like you might measure something’s “freshness” or “happiness.”
You can add this ending to the stem of most i-adjectives and some na-adjectives. Remember, the stem of a na-adjective is its dictionary form, but to find the stem of an i-adjective you’ll need to remove the 〜い transcribed i ending!
Here are some examples of how you might use these 〜さ transcribed sa nouns in a sentence:
When to add 〜み [mi] to an adjective?
You can add the suffix 〜み transcribed mi to the stem of some i-adjectives to create a noun that indicates a sense, feeling, place, or state. Please note that the number of i-adjectives that take 〜み transcribed mi is limited. Compare the meanings of these nouns to nouns created using 〜さ transcribed sa.
| Adjective | Noun with み transcribed mi | Noun with さ transcribed sa |
|---|---|---|
痛い Transcription: itai Translation: painful | 痛み Transcription: itami Translation: pain | 痛さ Transcription: itasa Translation: painfulness |
悲しい Transcription: kanashii Translation: sad | 悲しみ Transcription: kanashimi Translation: sorrow | 悲しさ Transcription: kanashisa Translation: sadness |
深い Transcription: fukai Translation: deep | 深み Transcription: fukami Translation: depth, a deep spot | 深さ Transcription: fukasa Translation: deepness |
And here are some examples of these words in sentences.
When to remove い [i] from a color adjective?
In English, you can use any color adjective as an adjective (“a red dress”) or a noun (“the red of the dress”) without changing the word at all. In Japanese though, you’ll need to remove the ending い transcribed i to use a color adjective as a noun.
The six i-adjectives that describe basic colors in Japanese are listed in the table below.
| Color adjectives | Color nouns | English |
|---|---|---|
赤い transcribed akai | 赤 transcribed aka | red |
青い transcribed aoi | 青 transcribed ao | blue |
白い transcribed shiroi | 白 transcribed shiro | white |
黒い transcribed kuroi | 黒 transcribed kuro | black |
黄色い transcribed ki’iroi | 黄色 transcribed ki’iro | yellow |
茶色い transcribed chairoi | 茶色 transcribed chairo | brown |
You can use the color adjectives to describe a noun just like any other i-adjective: just put the dictionary form directly before the noun. But if you want to describe the color of something using a color noun, you’ll need to add の transcribed no between the color noun and the thing you’re describing.
To sum up
In this article, we looked at how to make adverbs and nouns out of Japanese adjectives. Here are the biggest takeaways:
To make an adverb from an adjective:
i-adjectives → change the ending 〜い transcribed i to 〜く transcribed ku
na-adjectives → add 〜に transcribed ni to the dictionary form
To make a noun from an adjective:
add 〜さ transcribed sa to the adjective stem → like adding “-ness” in English
add 〜み transcribed mi to the stem of some i-adjectives → describes a sense, feeling, place, or state
remove 〜い transcribed i from i-adjectives for colors
Ready to practice what you’ve learned? Check out our adjectival nouns and adverbs activities! Or, if you’d rather keep learning, check out our other posts on Japanese adjectives!
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