How to use Japanese emotion adjectives?

In Japanese, emotion adjectives, which describe our internal experience of the world, are often contrasted with other sorts of adjectives, which describe the world outside us. These other adjectives are called attributive adjectives, or 属性形容詞 (meaning zokusei keiyōshi), because they describe features or attributes of nouns, like their size, shape, color, age, texture, taste, sound, smell, personality, and more.

Here are some examples of Japanese attributive adjectives. Notice that these are words you would use to describe people, things, or ideas around you.

In Japanese, there is some overlap between emotion adjectives and attributive adjectives. Some adjectives can be used either to describe someone’s internal experience of an emotion or to describe a trait of someone or something. Can you see the difference between the emotion use and attributive use of the adjectives below?

The person who experiences an emotion described by an emotion adjective is generally marked by the topic marker は (transcribed wa).

There are a few restrictions on who the experiencer of a Japanese emotion adjective can be.

• Restriction #1: The experiencer must be a person or a human-like being (such as Paddington the talking bear).

• Restriction #2: In the non-past tense, the experiencer is almost always the speaker (“I”). In Japanese, we don’t talk about emotional adjectives that other people are currently experiencing.

  ✅ 私は悲しい。

  Transcription: Watashi wa kanashii.

  Translation: I’m sad.

  ❌ あなたは嬉しい。

  Transcription: Anata wa ureshii.

  Translation: You are happy.

  ❌ ジョンは眠い。

  Transcription: Jon wa nemui.

  Translation: John is sleepy.

  Because the “I” is really the only noun that these adjectives apply in this tense, the pronoun itself is often omitted and only implied in Japanese sentences.

  とても嬉しいです。

  Transcription: Totemo ureshii desu.

  Translation: (I) am very happy.

  私は (transcribed watashi wa, meaning “as for me”) is omitted and only implied.

• Restriction #3: In questions, emotion adjectives generally only describe the listener (“you”). The pronoun is often omitted or implied here as well

  これ、欲しい？

  Transcription: Kore, hoshii?

  Translation: Do you want this?

  あなたは (transcribed anata wa, meaning “as for you”) is omitted and only implied.

When using emotion adjectives, the noun or circumstance that causes a feeling is usually marked by the particle が (transcribed ga). Sometimes it’s easier to think of the cause of a feeling as the “target” of an emotion, but they’re marked the same way.

Let’s look at some more examples. Notice that, in all of these, the experiencer is omitted because we can assume it’s the speaker.

When using an emotion adjective that represents a bodily sensation, the noun marked by が (transcribed ga) will often be a more physical cause of a feeling.

When the circumstance that causes a feeling is represented by a complete clause, instead of a noun phrase, you don’t need to include が (transcribed ga).

Now that we have found out how to describe how we feel or sense, let’s move on to discover how we can describe someone else’s emotions and senses in the next section!

You can use emotion adjectives to describe someone else’s feelings if you turn them into verbs with the structure adjective stem + 〜がる (transcribed garu). The exact translation varies, but it conveys a meaning of “to show signs of (feeling).”

When using “...garu” verbs, the cause of someone’s feeling becomes the object of the verb and is marked by the particle を (transcribed o).

Just like other verbs, verbs for emotional reactions can be put into other forms as well, such as the -te iru form. You might use this form to discuss someone’s active emotional state, rather than their general feelings about something.

In Japanese, we don’t generally assert that someone does feel a certain way, but it is fine to state that someone seems like they feel a certain way. You can clarify that you’ve determined someone’s feelings using evidence by adding endings like 〜そうだ (transcribed sōda) or 〜らしい (transcribed rashii) to the emotion adjective.

• Use 〜そうだ (transcribed sōda) in a situation when you personally witnessed evidence of someone’s emotion, in a situation where you might use “seem,” “look,” or “apparently,” in English.

  adjective stem

  

  〜そうだ (transcribed sōda)

  嬉しそうだね。どうしたの？

  Transcription: Ureshisoo da ne. Dō shita no?

  Translation: You look happy, don’t you? What happened?

• Use 〜らしい (transcribed rashii) in a situation where you’ve heard reports that someone feels some way. Notice this ending is added to the dictionary form, not the stem!

  adjective stem (dictionary form)

  

  〜らしい (transcribed rashii)

  ジョンは眠いらしいよ。

  Transcription: Jon wa nemui rashii yo.

  Translation: I’ve heard that John is feeling sleepy, you know.

  You’ll often hear 〜らしい translated as “apparently” or “seems.”

We can also describe someone else’s emotions and senses using an explanatory form such as 〜のだ (transcribed noda), 〜んだ (transcribed nda), 〜なのだ (transcribed nanoda), 〜なんだ (transcribed nanda), 〜のだろう (transcribed nodarō), 〜んだろう (transcribed ndarō), or the polite version of one of these. The translation varies.

In creative writing, especially in novels, we can describe the third-person subject’s emotions and senses using the past affirmative form of an emotion adjective.

This is possible in creative writing because we (as the writer) can freely get into our characters’ minds and describe their emotions as if they are our own. This method, therefore, doesn’t work in everyday conversations – unless you are an excellent mind-reader and are keeping a running commentary!