There are two types of adjectives in Japanese, na-adjectives and i-adjectives. Na-adjectives, which we'll look at later in this course, can be a bit difficult to identify, as they are very similar to Japanese nouns. It's much easier to identify i-adjectives, since they all end in い！

Here are some i-adjectives you'll need for this section of the course (and for life in general):

OK. Go time.

Now, I know that you're a pro at making "A is B" sentences, since we saw quite a few of them earlier in the course. With just this little bit of information, there are SO many sentences we can now form.

There is one major reason for this: You know thousands of English loan words.

What I mean by "English loan words" is "Katakana English."

For example, スープ is "soup."

ホテル is "hotel." And so on.

Since you already know so many of these words, when you then learn descriptive words in Japanese (i.e. adjectives), your sentence-forming capability skyrockets.

Take this i-adjective (which we've seen a few times now):

美味しい
おいしい
tasty; delicious; good

Take these food-related words, which, as you will find is common with foods, are all "Katakana English:"

サラダ　＝　salad
カレー　＝　curry
ハンバーガー　＝　hamburger
デザート　＝　dessert
ケーキ　＝　cake
チーズ　＝　cheese
チーズケーキ　＝　cheesecake
ステーキ　＝　steak
チキン　＝　chicken

We already saw that これ means "this" in Japanese, yeah? What I didn't point out, however, is that これ is the noun "this" (e.g. "This is delicious"). この, however, is the adjective "this" (e.g. "This cake is delicious").

Using この, along with 美味しい and the list of English loan words above, we can make all of the following sentences...

(Note: Remember that 美味しい is おいしい.)

このサラダは美味しいです。
このカレーは美味しいです。
このハンバーガーは美味しいです。
このデザートは美味しいです。
このケーキは美味しいです。
このチーズは美味しいです。
このチーズケーキは美味しいです。
このステーキは美味しいです。
このチキンは美味しいです。
This salad / curry / hamburger / dessert / cake / cheese / cheesecake / steak / chicken is good.
Literally: "this + salad / curry / hamburger / dessert / cake / cheese / cheesecake / steak / chicken + は + delicious + です."

Now let's make all of those into casual sentences:

(Note: We're removing です and the particle は.)

このサラダ美味しい。
このカレー美味しい。
このハンバーガー美味しい。
このデザート美味しい。
このケーキ美味しい。
このチーズ美味しい。
このチーズケーキ美味しい。
このステーキ美味しい。
このチキン美味しい。
This salad / curry / hamburger / dessert / cake / cheese / cheesecake / steak / chicken is good.
Literally: "this + salad / curry / hamburger / dessert / cake / cheese / cheesecake / steak / chicken + delicious."

(Note: Depending on the situation, sometimes you would put a は before おいしい in these sentences. Understanding when to do this, though, [i.e. understanding the difference in nuance] will take time. Patience, my friends.)

And now for a bonus phrase:

そのレストランは美味しいです。
その　レストラン　は　おいしい　です。
That restaurant is good.
Literally: "that + restaurant + は + delicious + です."

What do you think ー can you make sentences like these?

Maybe it's time to try for yourself.

Here are our i-adjectives again:

And here are some katakana words:

(Note: I know a lot of you have been slacking on your katakana studies, so I'll include romaji just this once.)

See how many "A is B" sentences you can form by combining these words.

Really, just try. I'll wait here.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Fine. Don't try to make as many sentences as you can. Just keep scrolling and make me do it for you.

Now, remember that we're making "A is B" sentences here.

A は B です。
A is B.

Let's see what we can make with the following A and B combos...

B = 高い / たかい = “tall” or “expensive”

A = コーヒー “coffee”
コーヒーは高いです。
Coffee is expensive.

A = ビール = “beer”
ビールは高いです。
Beer is expensive.

A = ニコ = “Niko”
ニコは高いです。
Niko is tall. (I wish, haha)

A = スイス = “Switzerland (from “Swiss”)”
スイスは高いです。
Switzerland is expensive.

A = フランス = “France”
フランスは高いです。
France is expensive.

A = ドル = “dollar”
ドルは高いです。
The dollar is expensive.

A = テレビ = “TV”
テレビは高いです。
TVs are expensive.

A = カメラ = “camera”
カメラは高いです。
Cameras are expensive.

A = アパート = “apartment (shortened version of アパートメント)”
アパートは高いです。
Apartments are expensive.

A = スカイツリー = “(Tokyo) Sky Tree”
スカイツリーは高いです。
(Tokyo) Sky Tree is tall.
Note: This wasn't actually in our katakana list above, so just in case you're having trouble with katakana, the reading is sukai tsurī.

What do you think? Do you have these "A is B" formations down no problem?

I hope so, because I'm about to bombard you with a ton of examples that we can use with the small smattering of words listed at the top of this lesson. (Sorry if some words slip in that aren't in our tables above. Tables confuse me. *_*)

B = 安い / やすい / yasui = “cheap” or "inexpensive"

B = 美味しい / おいしい = “delicious” or "tasty"

B = まずい = “not good tasting" or "gross"

B = 大きい / おおきい = “big”

B = 小さい / ちいさい = “small”

B = 面白い / おもしろい = “interesting” or "fun"

But how do we know the nuances of all of these sentences?

Yeah, these are all complete sentences in Japanese, but how do we know if we're using them naturally?

The very general answer is that most of the above sentences will only be natural to use in very specific situations.

That begs yet another question: How do we know when a sentence or way of phrasing something is appropriate for a given situation?

Well, you won't... until you get to a higher level in the language. For the first couple years of speaking Japanese, you pretty much have to accept that you're going to be saying lots of things with widely different nuances than you were intending. And you're going to be saying things in a completely different way than a native Japanese speaker would say them.

This is why it's so important to get feedback from native speakers when you're trying to speak or write in Japanese naturally. That's also why we only let native Japanese speakers write the sentences we use on this website. (This page is an exception, since we're just plugging random words into a pattern... which is leaving us with quite a few strange-sounding — albeit understandable — sentences.)

Going back to the list of sentences above, there are some things I'd like to mention:

1) Notice that most of the sentences above are generalized statements.

For example, we had カメラは高いです being translated to "Cameras are expensive." It's not "This camera is expensive," "My camera is expensive," or anything like that. This is because to point out a specific camera, we would either use an adjective like この, "this," or we would let context make it clear which camera we are talking about (i.e. we would not need to say カメラは).

I talk about this a bit in this lesson: [NDL #22] - Sentence Hacking 101: The 2-Word Sentence. Scroll down to the part that says "Nuance Level-Up." While reading that lesson, you may also want to consider how...

2) You can make those generalized statements specific using この (this)、その (that [near the listener])、and あの (that [far from the listener]).

カメラは高いです。
Cameras are expensive.

このカメラは高いです。
This camera is expensive.

(If you can't read these two sentences in Japanese, maybe you haven't been paying much attention? Didn't you read every single line of my charts on this page?! T_T)

3) To make the sentences above casual, remove です.

And sometimes you can remove は, too, though knowing when to do so is tricky.

4) Do not underestimate the potential of this simple grammar construction.

There are thousands of English loan words in Japanese. Thus, if you can master pronouncing English words in a Japanese accent, you can say an awful lot of things in Japanese.

So if you just scrolled right on past those tables above, maybe go back and scroll at 1/2 speed. Or if you're feeling really intense, actually read them and see if you can make sentences like those on your own.