Changing an adjective to an adverb (e.g. he ate quickly) in Japanese is simple, although the rules differ between i-adjectives and na-adjectives.

I-Adjectives

For i-adjectives we replace the い with く. For example, “cheap” goes to “cheaply” like so:

やすい ⇒ やす

“Good” goes to “well” like so:

いい ⇒ よ

We can then append our adverbs before the verb to make a sentence.

はや きます。
Wake up early.
つよ します。
To push with force [strongly].
たか りました。
Sell for a good price.

Na-Adjectives

For na-adjectives we add に. For example, “easy” goes to “easily” like so:

簡単かんたん ⇒ 簡単かんたん

“Quiet” goes to “quietly” like so:

しずか ⇒ しず

Some example sentences:

きれい きます。
Write beautifully.
丁寧ていねい はなします。
Speak politely.
You May Also Like

Expressing the Potential (できる)

In order to express the potential in Japanese we need to alter the verb ending. The way we…

Hiragana & Katakana

Hiragana and katakana are the two syllabaries in Japanese. Hiragana is used to form the grammar of the…

Similarity & Hearsay in Japanese

There are numerous ways to express “seems like” in Japanese and what makes each of these expressions tricky…

How Difficult is Japanese?

If you’re thinking of learning Japanese then the chances are that you’re wondering: “Is Japanese really that difficult?”…