な-adjective conjugation (adverb)

5 comments

1. 新鮮に is correct. However, 捕まりました is not because it is modifying the noun 魚 so you need to use 普通形 (plain form), which is 捕まった.

2. You’re too directly translating from English. 新鮮 means “fresh” in the sense of “new and delicious (food)”. “Freshly” in the sense of “just happened” is verb stem + たて. You don’t 捕まる fish, either, you 釣る them. So freshly caught fish would be “釣りたての魚”.

3. You mostly got the gist of the な/に grammar down which is the important part here. For future reference, 新鮮に and 捕える aren’t really idiomatic word choices for catching fish. You should also take to use ます forms only at the ends of sentences/non-relative clauses.

4. 田中さんは新鮮な魚を食べました is probably what you want; shinsen for fresh would imply the ‘caught’ part of freshly *caught*. But if for some reason you wanna emphasize the *caught* portion (like maybe it’s about catching your own fish for some Hemmingway self sustaining satisfaction?) you could try:

   田中さんは捕れたばかりの魚を食べました

   Tsureta bakari – tsuerta being caught and bakkari being ‘just now/just recently/only just.’

   ​

   You could combine them into

   田中さんは捕れたばかりの新鮮な魚を食べました

   (or swap shinsen na and tsureta bakari no’s positions)

   but I will warn you that sounds really weird, kinda gilding the lily.

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   TLDR: Go with shinsen na, unless you have a very specific context/idea you’re going for.

5. “Fresh fish” is translated as 新鮮な魚 and it sounds natural, but if you want to say “freshly caught fish”, 新鮮 sounds unnatural and 新たに獲られた魚 sounds not unnatural, but it is uncommon. The below phrases sound natural:

   釣りたての魚 (sounds like catching it using a fishing rod)

   獲りたての魚 (may sound like catching it by yourself)

   獲れたての魚 (may sound like catching it by yourself or others)