Example dialogue I made up:
A: Which car was it?
B: It was the red car.
A：どの車でしたか。
B：赤かった車です。
With い adjectives, you’re supposed to conjugate the adjective rather than the copula.
In the example dialogue, A asks “Which car **was** it?” and B is supposed to reply “It **was** the red car”. But in Japanese B says 「赤かった車です。」 which more sounds like “It’s the car that was red.” when translated back into English because the adjective is supposed to be conjugated rather than the copula.
Could B say 「赤い車でした。」instead of 「赤かった車です。」? Is that grammatically correct? Is one more correct or natural sounding than the other?
2 comments
Not only can B say 赤い車でした, they must say that. 赤かった車です means “the car that was red”
You need to conjugate the final word, in this case you have 赤い車 with 車 noun at the end and nouns conjugate with a copula. That’s why you get 赤い車でした for past-tense.