In this guide
I find descriptions particularly satisfying when I’m learning a language. Being able to name a café is useful, but saying that it’s quiet tells someone a little more about why I might choose it. “Quiet” is an adjective: a word that describes what something is like. Even a short sentence can tell someone about your tastes.
In Japanese, learning the word is only part of putting that description together. You might want to name “a quiet café,” or tell someone that the café was quiet when you visited. The adjective needs to fit the job you want it to do, and that affects how you connect it to other words and how the sentence ends.
We’ll work with the two main adjective types, called i-adjectives and na-adjectives, to build descriptions of familiar places and things. You’ll practise choosing endings that keep your meaning, whether you’re describing a past visit or adding another detail. Let’s start with a single quality and see how it fits into a phrase or a sentence.
A cheap bag, or a bag that’s cheap?
Start with two useful words: 安い means “cheap,” and 静か means “quiet.” To name a cheap bag, put 安い directly before かばん, “bag.” To name a quiet café, put な between 静か and カフェ.
安いかばん
a cheap bag
静かなカフェ
a quiet café
That difference gives the two classes their names. An i-adjective such as 安い keeps its final い before a noun. A na-adjective such as 静か uses な to connect to the noun. Learn 静か as the word and な as the connection; you won’t keep that な in every sentence.
To make a statement, name the thing you’re discussing, add は, then give its quality. Here は is pronounced “wa”; この means “this.” Add です for a polite statement:
このかばんは安いです。
This bag is cheap.
このカフェは静かです。
This café is quiet.
Notice where な went: it belongs before the noun in 静かなカフェ, but the statement ends in 静かです. 安いです keeps the adjective’s い. Neither needs な before です. If you’d like to turn “quiet” into “quietly,” the guide to Japanese adverbs shows how each adjective type changes.
| Job | i-adjective | na-adjective |
|---|---|---|
| Describe the following noun | 安いかばん | 静かなカフェ |
| Make a polite statement | このかばんは安いです。 | このカフェは静かです。 |
Name the kind of café
Choose the noun phrase “a quiet café.” You’re naming a kind of place, rather than making a full statement about this café.
Which phrase uses 静か correctly before カフェ?
Learn the word with its adjective type
Regular i-adjectives end in い, but a word ending in an “i” sound isn’t automatically an i-adjective. きれい, meaning “clean” or “beautiful,” is a na-adjective. So is 嫌い, “disliked.” For “a clean room,” you need きれいな部屋. A polite statement ends in きれいです.
This is one dictionary label I’d check rather than guess. Learning きれい together with きれいな部屋 gives you both its meaning and its behavior. Keep these words available for the examples and your own writing:
| Class | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| i | 安い | cheap |
| i | 高い | expensive; tall or high |
| i | 小さい | small |
| i | おいしい | tasty |
| na | 静か | quiet |
| na | 便利 | convenient |
| na | きれい | clean; beautiful |
Check the adjective class
Select every na-adjective in this list.
Which of these words belong to the na-adjective class?
You can use a description before the noun and another at the end of the same statement. Here 小さい describes the bag, and 便利 tells us something about it:
この小さいかばんは便利です。
This small bag is convenient.
The whole phrase この小さいかばん, “this small bag,” comes before は. You’ve made the noun more specific, then said what it’s like.
Describe one thing you know
Choose an item or place you know. Write one polite sentence with an adjective before its noun and another quality at the end. Use your own details; you can draw on the vocabulary above.
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Was it cheap, or wasn’t it?
“Cheap,” “not cheap,” “was cheap” and “wasn’t cheap” are four different messages. Choose the one you mean, then change the ending. We’ll keep using polite statements first.
With i-adjectives, change the adjective
For “not cheap,” remove the final い from 安い and add くない: 安くない. For “was cheap,” replace that same い with かった: 安かった. Put です after the changed adjective.
このかばんは安くないです。
This bag isn’t cheap.
昨日、このかばんは安かったです。
This bag was cheap yesterday.
昨日 means “yesterday.” To say “wasn’t cheap,” start with the negative 安くない and change its final い to かった: 安くなかった. I prefer that route when learning the form because I can keep both parts of the meaning in view: negative first, then past.
昨日、このかばんは安くなかったです。
This bag wasn’t cheap yesterday.
For the plain style used in casual speech, leave off the polite です. The adjective can finish the sentence by itself; don’t add だ directly after it. Here are the four messages in both styles:
| Meaning | Plain | Polite |
|---|---|---|
| cheap | 安い | 安いです |
| not cheap | 安くない | 安くないです |
| was cheap | 安かった | 安かったです |
| wasn’t cheap | 安くなかった | 安くなかったです |
The adjective carries the change, while です stays です. おいしい works the same way: おいしかったです means “was tasty.” Use that changed adjective, rather than おいしいでした.
Say it wasn’t expensive
You’re describing the price yesterday: “This bag wasn’t expensive.” Use 高い, keep the displayed です, and type only the missing adjective form. Kanji or hiragana is accepted.
昨日、このかばんは＿です。
With na-adjectives, keep the base
For 静か, the quiet part stays 静か. To say “was quiet” politely, change 静かです to 静かでした.
昨日、このカフェは静かでした。
This café was quiet yesterday.
For “not quiet,” use 静かじゃない; add です to make 静かじゃないです. Then make じゃない past in the same way you made くない past: its final い changes to かった. That gives you 静かじゃなかったです, “wasn’t quiet.”
昨日、このカフェは静かじゃなかったです。
This café wasn’t quiet yesterday.
In the plain style, an affirmative statement uses 静かだ, and its past is 静かだった. The plain negatives finish without です. You don’t carry the noun-linking な into any of these statement endings:
| Meaning | Plain | Polite |
|---|---|---|
| quiet | 静かだ | 静かです |
| not quiet | 静かじゃない | 静かじゃないです |
| was quiet | 静かだった | 静かでした |
| wasn’t quiet | 静かじゃなかった | 静かじゃなかったです |
The same endings work with きれい and 便利. Their class determines the pattern, even when a word such as きれい sounds as though it might be an i-adjective.
Report on yesterday’s room
Choose the polite ending for “This room wasn’t clean yesterday.” きれい is a na-adjective.
昨日、この部屋は…
When revising, keep the message you intended. If you meant “was clean,” repair a mistaken きれいかったです to きれいでした. Changing it to きれいじゃなかったです would introduce “wasn’t clean” instead. A valid ending can still say the wrong thing.
Describe a past occasion
Think of a place you visited or an item you used on an earlier occasion. Write two short polite sentences: one quality it had, and one it didn’t have. Choose the details yourself, then check that both sentences describe that past occasion.
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いい changes to よ- when the ending changes
いい means “good,” and it belongs to the i-adjective class. It has a closely related form, よい. When you make it negative or past, use よ- rather than い-. So “not good” is よくない, and “was good” is よかった.
この映画はよかったです。
This film was good.
映画 means “film.” For “wasn’t good,” use よくなかった. Think of these as the familiar i-adjective endings attached to よ-, rather than trying to build them from いい. The same change happens inside かっこいい, “cool” or “good-looking”: its past is かっこよかった.
Give a past opinion
Say “This film was good.” Use the past form of いい and keep the displayed です. Type only the missing adjective form, in hiragana.
この映画は＿です。
Put two qualities in one sentence
To give two qualities of the same thing, put the first adjective into a connecting form. For an i-adjective, replace the final い with くて. For a na-adjective, put で after the base.
このかばんは安くて、便利です。
This bag is cheap and convenient.
このカフェは静かで、安いです。
This café is quiet and inexpensive.
安い becomes 安くて; 静か becomes 静かで. The second adjective finishes the statement in the way you already know. These examples mix the two classes: the first adjective chooses the connection, regardless of the class that comes next.
いい uses its よ- form here too: “good and…” is よくて. You can follow it with another quality and give that final adjective its ordinary statement ending.
Join two different classes
Say “This bag is convenient and cheap.” Use 便利 first and 安い second.
このかばんは…
Add another detail
Choose a place or item and give it two qualities in one polite sentence. You can reuse something from your earlier writing. Choose the connection from the first adjective’s class, and finish with the second quality.
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Keep the meaning when time changes
For one past occasion, change the final ending
You can now take a linked description into the past. When both qualities describe the same occasion, keep the first connection and make the final adjective past:
昨日、このカフェは静かで、安かったです。
Yesterday, this café was quiet and inexpensive.
静かで still connects “quiet” to the next quality. 安かったです places this combined description in the past and makes it polite. You don’t need a past ending on each adjective in this same-time list.
Try that with the linked sentence you just wrote. Picture an earlier occasion when both qualities were true, then change its final adjective to the past. The connection you chose for the first adjective stays the same.
Choose the negative for each quality
A final negative behaves differently from a final past ending. It denies that final quality, rather than all the qualities before it:
この部屋は小さくて、きれいじゃないです。
This room is small and isn’t clean.
Only “clean” is negative here; the room is still small. To make “small” negative too, form the negative before connecting it: 小さくない becomes 小さくなくて. You’ve replaced the negative form’s last い with くて.
この部屋は小さくなくて、きれいじゃないです。
This room isn’t small and isn’t clean.
A negative na-adjective connects in the same way: 静かじゃない becomes 静かじゃなくて. That keeps “not quiet” as the first quality:
このカフェは静かじゃなくて、便利じゃないです。
This café isn’t quiet and isn’t convenient.
First decide whether each quality is true or not. If you’re describing one past occasion, use a past ending for the final adjective, just as you did above. The next question asks you to keep “small” true while making “clean” negative in the past.
Keep both the time and the meaning
You’re describing one visit yesterday. The room was small, and it wasn’t clean. Choose the sentence that keeps both facts.
Which description matches?
If one fact is about yesterday and another is about now, write two sentences so each can have its own ending. I’d also keep two sentences when I want to make a contrast clear, rather than force every English “but” into this new connection.
Bring your descriptions together
You’ve described a noun inside a statement, reported past qualities, and joined two descriptions. Bring back the sentences you tried along the way. Now use those patterns to tell someone about a place and an item you know.
Describe a familiar place and an item
Write 3–5 short Japanese sentences about a place you know and an item you own. You can build on your earlier sentences. Use both i- and na-adjectives, an adjective directly before a noun, one past negative statement, and one sentence joining two properties. Choose your own details. Then reread and revise the endings while keeping the meaning you intended.
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Reread for the message first, then check the endings:
- Before a noun, check the adjective’s class. In the basic affirmative forms, use 安いかばん or 静かなカフェ.
- For each statement, decide when the quality applies and whether it is true. “Was quiet” and “wasn’t quiet” need different endings.
- In a joined description, check the first adjective’s connection and make each intended negative explicit.
- Compare your revised version with what you meant to say. An ending is useful only if it keeps that meaning.
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For another reading
You can stop here for a first pass. The patterns above give you a usable set for your own descriptions. These notes are for recognizing other forms when you meet them; you don’t need them to complete the writing task.
About the author
B. Rungswell
B. Rungswell is the editor of the Bunpo Check blog and a native English speaker who has passed JLPT N1. Drawing on many years of life in Japan and experience working at Japanese companies, Rungswell writes practical guides to Japanese grammar for English-speaking learners.