What’s the difference between “na” and “i” adjectives?

I’m trying to finish the adjective part of my Japanese Log and I’m trying to figure out the difference. What’s the difference between the two and when should I use them?

3 comments
  1. This is kind of a confusing question — they’re two different kind of adjectives that conjugate in different ways. I don’t really know how to answer “when should I use them”. What resource are you using that doesn’t explain this?

  2. The difference goes pretty deep, but to put it simply, na adjectives are, in many cases, nouns (grammatically speaking) that can be affixed to other nouns for description using な (hence the name; also, な is just the adjectival version of だ) and i adjectives are just straight up adjectives. As you learn more grammar constructions you’ll see the differences in how they behave

  3. I’ve heard an explanation that na adjectives are in fact nouns and it made pretty much sense (You can check Cure Dolly’s youtube channel, there’s a lot of useful things there). They don’t change their forms, just like nouns, and they need a declarative だ/ですat the end (for example “すてきだ!”is correct,”かわいいだ”isn’t. ですdoesn’t change anything with i adjectives and just adds politeness while with na adjectives it can make them for example to past tense.)
    Also, I-adjectives actually mean “is-adjective” so “かわいい” isn’t “cute”, it’s “is-cute”. That’s why adding だhere would make no sense since it’s equivalent of “to be”
    Cure Dolly explains it much better compared to textbooks, and it becames a lot easier so I would definitely recommend it :>>

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