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Japanese adjectives can function as complete predicates by themselves; they do not require anything like a form of the verb "to be", which is required for adjectives in English to function as predicates. Japanese adjectives are classified into two categories: i-adjectives, for example, 美しい, 大きい and 早い, and adjectival verbs , for example, 静かだ, きれいだ and 確かだ. These inflect to indicate tense and to form adverbs. The adjectival verbs also inflect to modify a following noun, as 静かな, きれいな and 確かな. Because of this, they are often taught to English speakers as "na-adjectives", but that ignores their other inflections, and is not the way Japanese speakers think about them. Na-adjectives are also called adjectival nouns. For more information on adjectives, please refer to the following links. |