Verbs
To modify a noun with a verb we need to use the standard form of the verb before the noun which we want to modify.
Time to eat. |
Film I saw. |
Letter to send. |
Coffee I did not drink. |
Umbrella I will not buy. |
The same logic applies to the auxiliary verb. In the above sentences the subject is assumed to be the speaker because we do not have enough information to know otherwise.
Person who is not a teacher. |
Time when I was a student. |
Mikiko who was not a student. |
For the affirmative auxiliary verb we need a third form of the auxiliary verb which will be introduced later.
Person who is a student. |
Adjectives
Similar to English, to modify a noun with an adjective in Japanese we simply place the adjective before the noun.
The car. |
The expensive car. |
I-Adjectives
I-adjectives are simple. All we need do is place them before the noun we want to modify.
おいしい |
Delicious food. |
Cheap wallet. |
We can only modify the noun with the standard form of the adjective. In Japanese, whether the sentence is standard or polite is determined by the form of the final verb.
やさしいです |
やさしい |
Kind teacher. |
What about negative sentences? Well, we can either modify the adjective or modify the auxiliary verb which give rise to the same meaning but using slightly different logic—as is the case in English.
Uninteresting film. |
He is an unkind teacher. |
He is not a kind teacher. |
A similar logic applies to past and past negative sentences; however, here it is almost always more natural to modify the auxiliary verb.
He is a teacher that was kind. |
He was a kind teacher. |
Na-Adjectives
I-adjectives are so called because they end with い. Na-adjectives, on the other hand, do not end with な. This is a syllable we need to add to the adjective when modifying nouns.
【na-adjective】+ な +【noun】
She is a beautiful lady. |
ここは |
This is a convenient place. |
これは |
This is a famous film. |
Note also that the auxiliary verb is omitted. In other words, the following is incorrect:
ここは |
This is a convenient place. |
What if we want to form negative, past, or past negative tense expressions? Here we include the auxiliary verb and exclude the な syllable.
She is a student that was serious. |
But, as before, modifying the auxiliary verb is far more natural in the vast majority of cases.
She was a serious student. |