Hi I I’m using genki to learn japanese, and on chapter 5 the book teaches adjectives ad noun modifications like
いい学生、やさしい先生、きれいな人。。。
But what about past tense? I get “he is a good student” “is a beautiful person”
But how would you say he Was a good person?
よかった人？
いい人ですた？
Also with na adjectives I see it clearer.
きれいなひとですた
But what about paat negative? Seh was not a beautiful person.
きれいな字なかったです？
Help!
3 comments
For was a good person you can say よかった人です。 “Person that was good”, but いい人でした “Was a good person” sounds more natural. For negatives you change the adjective into a negative not the noun, so it would be きれいじゃない人です。 “Is not a beautiful person.” Also past tense affirmative is でした not “ですた”.
In English, both the modifying clause and the main clause are relative to the time of speaking:
I **waited** until the bus **came**.
In Japanese, the tense of the modifying clause is *relative* to the tense of the main clause. Only the main clause is relative to the time of speaking. (In below cases, the main clause is just です, and the modifying clause only consists of the adjective)
(He) is a person that is good: いい人です
(He) is a person that was good (before): よかった人です
(He) was a good person: いい人でした
(He) was a person that was good (before): よかった人でした
(She) is a person that is good: きれいな人です
(She) is a person that was good (before): きれいだった人です
(She) was a good person: きれいな人でした
(She) was a person that was good (before): きれいだった人でした
Negative:
きれいじゃない人です
きれいじゃなかった人です
きれいじゃない人でした
きれいじゃなかった人でした
I wouldn’t try to use the past tense of adjectives before nouns until you hear it more. It probably isn’t used the way you’d expect. Just say
いい人でした
簡単な質問でした
美味しいご飯でした
When the adjective is a predicate, the past tense works the way you’d expect.
ご飯は美味しかったです
あんまり綺麗じゃなかった