Japanese Hobby

No-Adjectives in Japanese

<div>no-adjective refers to <a></a>no の particle after a noun. Generally speaking, "noun-no-noun" uses the first noun to describe the second noun somehow. This is also called the "genitive case." 
 

Anime: Zombieland Saga
<ul>
<li>Densetsu no Yamada Tae 
伝説の山田たえ 
The Legendary Yamada Tae.</li>
<ul>
<li>densetsu 伝説 
Legend.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
The term "no-adjective" is mostly used when teaching Japanese to non-native speakers, because a noun marked by the genitive case-marking particle no の acts like an adjective. 
 
There doesn't seem to be a Japanese equivalent for this term. Some books don't use the term at all. Furthermore, no-adjectives can be used in a hundred different ways, so it'd be very difficult to explain what is a no-adjective exactly, and perhaps even a futile effort. 
 
Anyways: 
 
<a name="more"></a><h2 id="genitive-case">
Genitive Case</h2>
The term "genitive case" refers to having a noun as modifying another word, usually a noun. That is, having a noun as adjective. In English, this is usually associated with the "possessive" case, in which a noun possesses the other. For example: 
<ul>
<li>shiro 城 
Castle.</li>
<li>ugoku shiro 動く城 
Castle that moves.</li>
<li>Hauru no Ugoku Shiro ハウルの動く城 
The Castle that Moves of Howl. 
Howl's Moving Castle.</li>
</ul>
 
However, the genitive case isn't limited only to possessions. The translation above using "of" and the contraction "'s" will not work for all cases. For example, sometimes the genitive describes what something is or is made of: 
<ul>
<li>gin 銀 
Silver.</li>
<li>saji 匙 
Spoon.</li>
<li>Gin no Saji 銀の匙 
Spoon of Silver. 
Silver's Spoon. (wrong!) 
Spoon made of Silver. 
Spoon that is Silver. 
Silver Spoon. (right!)</li>
</ul>
 
There's no way to tell what variant of the genitive case a no-adjective is just by looking at it. You have to guess from context and from the nouns involved. 
<h3 id="ambiguity-of-no-adjectives">
Ambiguity of No-Adjectives</h3>
This means that there's ambiguity on what no の really means in a phrase if you don't have necessary context. And it means that a same phrase no の phrase can mean two different things in two different contexts where they have two different variants of the genitive case. For example: 
<ul>
<li>onna 女 
Woman.</li>
<li>ko 子 
Child. (<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/03/ko-meaning.html">ko 子</a> has other meanings too.)</li>
<li>onna no ko 女の子</li>
</ul>
 
When we try to connect onna to ko, our first guess is probably going to be the possessive: "the child of a woman," that is, "a woman's child." However, the term onna no ko normally means "a child that is a woman," instead. In other words: a "girl." 
 
That isn't to say onna no ko always means "girl." It usually means "girl." 
<ul>
<li>ano onna no ko あの女の子 
That girl.</li>
</ul>
 
But say you're reading a manga and a character says the phrase above while he pointing at an elder woman. Naturally, an elder isn't a "child that is a woman," so "that girl" doesn't work here. Instead, we'd have to interpret it as: 
<ul>
<li>ano onna あの女 
That woman...</li>
<li>no ko の子 
...'s child.</li>
</ul>
 
Although the above is a rather far-fetched example, it illustrates that the same no-adjective can mean two different things in two different contexts. 
<ul>
<li>Pikaso no e ピカソの絵 
A picture of Picasso. (it features him.) 
Picasso's picture. (he bought that picture.) 
A picture made by Picasso. (he drew it.)</li>
<li>erufu no hanashi エルフの話 
A story about elves. (an Elven tale.) 
The story told by the elf. (he just told you about hitting an arrow into another arrow. He looked real proud of himself.)</li>
</ul>
 
Of course, even if such ambiguity didn't exist, there's still the ambiguity of <a></a><a></a> 
<ul>
<li>neko no mimi 猫の耳 
The ear of the cat. 
The ear of a cat. 
The ear of the cats. 
The ear of cats. 
A ear of the cat. 
A ear of a cat. 
A ear of the cats. 
A ear of cats. 
The ears of the cat. 
The ears of a cat. 
The ears of the cats. 
The ears of cats. 
Ears of the cat. 
Ears of a cat. 
Ears of the cats. 
Ears of cats. 
The cat's ear. 
The cat's ears. 
A cat's ear. 
A cat's ears. 
The cats' ear. 
The cats' ears. 
Cats' ear. 
Cats' ears.</li>
</ul>
 
But not everything is an ambiguous Asiatic nightmare. Japanese words do tend to make sense and follow a semblance of logic, and no-adjectives often mean the same thing in different contexts. 
<ul>
<li>Zeruda no Densetsu ゼルダの伝説 
The Legend of Zelda.</li>
<li>Densetsu no Yamada Tae 伝説の山田たえ 
The Yamada Tae who is a Legend. 
The Legendary Yamada Tae!!!1</li>
<li>Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 伝説の勇者の伝説 
The Legend of Heroes who are Legends. 
The Legend of Legendary Heroes.</li>
</ul>
 
On the other hand, English and Japanese are still different languages. So sometimes even if two no-adjectives work the same way, the way they become translated to English is different. Which is just another reason why you shouldn't rely on translations too much. 
 

Anime: Zombieland Saga
<ul>
<li>nazo no aidoru 
purodhuusaa!! 
Tatsumi Koutarou!! 
謎のアイドル　プロデューサー！！　巽幸太郎！！ 
The mysterious idol producer!! Tatsumi Koutarou!!</li>
</ul>
 
In the phrase above, the word "mystery," nazo 謎, became "mysterious," nazo no 謎の. This is the exact same function of the word "legendary" that came from "legend." 
 
Note that in English "mystery" got an "-ious" suffix, while legend got an "-ary" suffix. In Japanese we simply added a no の both times. So the way you translate the no-adjective to English varies depending on the noun even when it performs the same function. 
<h3 id="noun-compounds">
Noun Compounds</h3>
Sometimes, a noun works as an adjective for a second noun without the no の particle. That is, it's a noun right next another noun. 
 
For example, <a></a>neko no mimi 猫の耳. 
<h4 id="kanji-compounds">
Kanji Compounds</h4>
Noun compounds are not to be confused with kanji compounds, which are words composed of more than one kanji. 
 
For example, <a></a>kanji, but is just one noun. 
 
Furthermore, each kanji of a kanji compound may have its own <a></a><a></a>baka 馬鹿 is composed by morphemes that mean "horse," uma 馬, and "deer," shika 鹿, for example. 
 
There are also cases like joshi 女子, which is <a></a>onna no ko 女の子. Its kanji have different <a></a>joshi and onna no ko can be translated as "girl," joshi is usually older than onna no ko, which is used toward young children. 
<h2 id="examples-of-usage">
Examples of Usage</h2>
For reference, some examples of how no-adjectives are used to help you understand them. 
<h3 id="chart">
Chart</h3>
Here's a chart of no-adjectives' functions, summarizing it all. 
 
<h3 id="possessive-case">
Possessive Case</h3>
The most common usage of no-adjectives is talk about possessions. The no particle marks the possessor, and what comes after is the possession, sometimes called the possessee. 
<ul>
<li>Possessor no Possession</li>
<li>Possessor's Possession</li>
<li>Possession of Possessor.</li>
</ul>
 
Note that normally when you think of the word "possession" you think of a physical object that can be taken away. This isn't always the case with possessive adjectives. Possessives can refer to attributes and concepts that don't exist physically but are "of" somebody or something. 
 
That said, not everything that is "of" is a possession. A spoon of silver is "of" silver, but you can't say "silver has a spoon," so it isn't one of silver's possession. Meanwhile, "silver has a conductivity," so that's a possession, and you can say "conductivity of silver." 
<ul>
<li>Nihon no jinkou 日本の人口 
The population of Japan. Japan's population. 
(Japan has a population.)</li>
<li>anime no rekishi アニメの歴史 
The history of anime. Anime's history. 
(anime has a history.)</li>
<li>tatemono no takasa 建物の高さ 
The tall-ness of a building. The building's tall-ness. 
The height of the building. 
(buildings have heights.)</li>
<li>kuruma no hayasa 車の速さ 
The fast-ness of cars. The cars' fast-ness. 
The speed of the car. The car's speed. 
(cars have speeds.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. 
(Haruhi has melancholy.)</li>
<li>Koe no Katachi 聲の形 
The Shape of Voice. 
(the voice has a shape.) 
(English title: A Silent Voice.)</li>
<li>JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 
The Bizarre Adventure of JoJo. 
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. 
(JoJo has a bizarre adventure.)</li>
<li>Berusaiyu no Bara ベルサイユのばら 
Versailles no Bara ベルサイユのばら 
The Rose of Versailles. The Versailles' Rose. 
(the Versailles has a rose.)</li>
<li>Mahoutsukai no Yome 魔法使いの嫁 
The Bride of the Magic-User. The Magician's Bride. 
(the magic-user has a bride.) 
(English title: The Ancient Magus' Bride)</li>
<li>Bakemono no Ko バケモノの子 
Child of a Beast. A Beast's Child. 
(the beast has a child.) 
(English title: The Boy and the Beast.)</li>
<li>Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou 男子高校生の日常 
The Daily Lives of High School Boys. 
(high school boys have daily lives.)</li>
<li>Saiki Kusuo no Sainan 斉木楠雄のΨ難 
The disasters of Saiki Kusuo. 
(Saiki Kusuo has disasters.) 
(English title: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.)</li>
<ul>
<li>sainan 災難, "disaster," is stylized as sainan Ψ難, or psi-nan, in this title because Saiki is a psychic and the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, Ψ, is called psi.</li>
</ul>
<li>Zero no Tsukaima ゼロの使い魔 
The Familiar of Zero. 
(Zero has a familiar.)</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="possessive-personal-pronouns">
Possessive Personal Pronouns</h4>
The no particle is often used to make possessives out of <a></a> 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/08/watashi-boku-ore-meaning.html">watashi</a> no neko 私の猫 
(I have a cat.) 
My cat.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/kare-kareshi-kanojo-meaning.html">kanojo</a> no tanjoubi 彼女の誕生日 
(she has a birthday.) 
Her birthday.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/anata-omae-kimi-kisama-meaning.html">Kimi</a> no Na wa. 君の名は。 
(you have a name.) 
Your Name.</li>
<li>omae no doriru wa ten wo tsuki-yaburu doriru nanda yo! 
お前のドリルは天を突き破るドリルなんだよ！ 
Your drill is the drill to pierce through the heavens!</li>
<li>Boku no Hiiroo Akademia 僕のヒーローアカデミア 
Boku no Hero Academia 僕のヒーローアカデミア 
(I have a hero academia.) 
My Hero Academia.</li>
<li>Bokurano 僕らの 
(we have a... something?) 
 Ours.</li>
<li>Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない 
(I have a little sister.) 
It Can't Be That My Little Sister is This Cute.</li>
</ul>
 
The no particle is also embedded in the demonstrative pronouns <a></a><a></a> 
<ul>
<li>kore これ 
This. (noun.)</li>
<li>kono この 
This. (adjective.)</li>
<li>kore neko これ猫 
This = cat. 
[Hey!] This [thing is a] cat!</li>
<li>kono neko この猫 
This cat. 
This cat [right here.]</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="places-and-residency">
Places & Residency</h3>
Places are a tricky kind of noun. Most of the time, places are possessions. You own a place. 
<ul>
<li>Houseki no Kuni 宝石の国 
The Jewels have a Country. 
The Country of Jewels. 
The Jewels' Country. 
(English title: Land of the Lustrous)</li>
<li>Doruaaga no Tou ドルアーガの塔 
Druaga no Tou ドルアーガの塔 
Druaga has a Tower. 
Tower of Druaga. 
Druaga's Tower.</li>
</ul>
 
But, thousands of years of human civilization aside, what makes it so you can claim you "own" a place? Do you own land just by putting a flag on it? If you live in a house, does it automatically make it your house? 
<ul>
<li>ninja no sato 忍者の里 
The ninjas' village. 
The village owned by ninjas. 
The village where ninjas reside.</li>
</ul>
 
At first glance, there's not much difference between one and other. But consider the following phrase: 
<ul>
<li>Piano no Mori ピアノの森 
The Piano's Forest. 
The forest owned by the piano...? 
The forest where the piano resides.</li>
</ul>
 
The concept of a piano owning a forest is ridiculous. Therefore, the phrase must mean that there's a piano in the forest, hence why it's the piano's forest: it's the forest in which the piano resides. 
 
In English, we can also use noun compounds when something resides in something. For example: 
<ul>
<li>ninja no sato 忍者の里 
The ninja village 
The village in which there are ninjas.</li>
<li>Piano no Mori ピアノの森 
The Piano Forest 
The forest in which there is a piano.</li>
</ul>
 
This is similar to how a "juice box" is a box that contains juice, not a box owned by juice. 
 
Also, in English, we can inflect the noun into an adjective instead of using noun compounds. For example: 
<ul>
<li>erufu no mori エルフの森 
The elves' forest. The forest owned by the elves. 
The elf's forest. The forest owned by a specific elf 
The elf forest. The forest in which there are elves. 
The elven forest. A forest of the elves.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="usage-with-numbers">
Usage With Numbers</h3>
The no-adjectives can be used with <a></a><a></a> 
<ul>
<li>ippiki 一匹 
One small animal.</li>
<li>ippiki no neko 一匹の猫 
Cats in quantity of one small animal. 
One cat.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>hitotsu. futatsu. 一つ。二つ。 
One of a thing. Two of a thing.</li>
<li>futatsu no sekai 二つの世界 
Worlds in quantity of two. 
Two worlds.</li>
<ul>
<li>Another way to interpret this phrase would be: 
The world possessed by two things.</li>
</ul>
<li>mou hitotsu no sekai もう一つの世界 
One more world.</li>
<li>Nanatsu no Taizai ７つの大罪 
Great Sins in Quantity of Seven. 
The Seven Deadly Sins.</li>
</ul>
 
This also works for nouns that imply vague numbers. 
<ul>
<li>kazukazu no tatakai 数々の戦い 
Battles in numerous quantity. 
Numerous battles.</li>
<li>taihan no hito 大半の人 
People of the majority quantity. 
The majority of people. Most people.</li>
</ul>
 
Another way no-adjectives and numbers relate are in partitives. 
<h3 id="partitive">
Partitive</h3>
When the possession is a number, the no-adjective may form a partitive: a phrase that describes a portion of a whole. For example: 
<ul>
<li>keeki no hitokire ケーキの一切れ 
One slice of cake.</li>
<li>jinrui no go-wari wa josei 人類の５割は女性 
 Five-tenths of the human race are female.</li>
<ul>
<li>jinrui 人類 
Human race. Humankind.</li>
<li>wari 割 
Proportion. Part. 
A tenth. N tenths. (when used as a counter.)</li>
</ul>
<li>mondai no ichibu de shika nai 問題の一部でしかない 
It's but one part of the question.</li>
</ul>
 
The above are what are called "entity partitives," since we're talking about a percentage of a whole. (a percentage of a cake, the human race, or the question.) 
 
Another type of partitives are the "set partitives," where we talk about a number of individual units from a larger set of units. For example: 
<ul>
<li>neko no ippiki 猫の一匹 
One of the cats.</li>
</ul>
 
The above can mean "one of the cats" of a defined group, like you had four cats and something happened to one of the four. 
 
It can also simply mean "one cat" without implying that there's a group or anything because you can also interpret it like: 
<ul>
<li>neko no ippiki 猫の一匹 
Given literally all cats in the whole world—no, the whole universe!—we're talking about one single one of them. 
One small animal, that is a cat.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="no-hitotsu">
No Hitotsu の一つ</h4>
The phrase no hitotsu の一つ means "one of." It's commonly used when you're talking of "one of" many things. For example: 
<ul>
<li>shitto wa nanatsu no taizai no hitotsu 嫉妬は７つの大罪の一つ 
Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.</li>
<li>gen'in no hitotsu 原因の一つ 
 One of the causes. (there are many causes.)</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="no-hitotsu-ya-futatsu">
No Hitotsu ya Futatsu のひとつやふたつ</h4>
The expression no hitotsu ya futatsu のひとつやふたつ, meaning "one, two, [or more] of," is generally used when talking about something you're supposed to have at least one of. Specially when that's obvious, or expected, or maybe when someone assumed the opposite. 
<ul>
<li>hissatsu waza no hitotsu ya futatsu 必殺技のひとつやふたつ 
One or two sure-kill techniques, [or more!] 
(What do you mean you have no sure-kill techniques? Every battle manga main character has least one sure-kill technique!)</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="no-hitori">
No Hitori の一人</h4>
The phrase no hitori の一人 also means "one of," but is used toward people instead. 
<ul>
<li>ninja no hitori 忍者の一人 
One person of the ninjas. 
One of the ninjas.</li>
<li>kazoku no hitori 家族の一人 
One person of the family.</li>
</ul>
 
Of course, you can interpret these as attributives instead of partitives: 
<ul>
<li>One person that is a ninja. 
One ninja.</li>
<li>One person that is part of the family. 
One family member.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="members-of-groups">
Members of Groups</h4>
Although not exactly the same thing, no-adjectives can be used similarly to indicate someone is a member of a given group. For example: 
<ul>
<li>Koodo Giasu: Hangyaku no Ruruushu コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ 
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ 
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. 
(Lelouch is a member of the rebellion.)</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="no-between-family-name-and-given-name">
No の Between Family Name and Given Name</h4>
Similarly, in archaic Japanese, sometimes somebody's name is written with a no の between the family name and their given name, as if the family was a group they were a member of. For example: 
<ul>
<li>Nasu Yoichi 那須与一</li>
<li>Nasu no Yoichi 那須の与一 
Yoichi of the Nasu family.</li>
<li>Kiyohara Fukayabu 清原深養父</li>
<li>Kiyohara no Fukayabu 清原の深養父 
Fukayabu of the Kiyohara family.</li>
</ul>
 
To be honest I'm not sure if these are family names or clan names, and if they are given names or aliases. Japan was full of name-switching traditions. 
 
For reference: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2139746828816552001">昔の人の名前で源と書いて「みなもとの」と読むのはなぜ？ - matome.naver.jp</a> [accessed in 2018-11-08] 
A compilation of information about this.</li>
<li><a href="http://ypir.lib.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/bg/file/463/20170209091741/BG70011000006.pdf">天草本平家物語における・主格表現—格助詞「の」「が」を中心に— - ypir.lib.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp</a> [accessed in 2018-11-08] 
An analysis of the usage of the no の and ga が particles in The Tale of the Heike.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="omission-in-names">
Omission in Names</h3>
In Japanese, names of people are traditionally written with kanji only, no hiragana. Since the no の particle is written with hiragana, it may be left unwritten in some names of people. That is, it gets read as if it was there, but isn't spelled. 
 
Literally. 
 
For example: 
<ul>
<li>ki 木 
Tree.</li>
<li>shita 下 
Below.</li>
<li>kinoshita 木の下 
Under a tree.</li>
<li>Kinoshita Toukichirou 木の下藤吉郎 
(becomes written as...)</li>
<li>Kinoshita Toukichirou 木下藤吉郎 
(Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉, a warrior samurai general of the 16th century, was also known by this name.)</li>
<ul>
<li>Note that the name is ki-no-shita 木下 not ki-shita 木下. The no の is unwritten.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h3 id="aspect-and-categorization">
Aspect & Categorization</h3>
Another common use of no-adjectives is to describe things by their aspects. If you have a noun that works as a quality of something, adding the no particle turns it into a category-like word that classifies the following noun. For example: 
<ul>
<li>ryouri no hon 料理の本 
A book of cooking. A book about cooking. 
A cooking book.</li>
<li>jikan no mondai 時間の問題 
A question of time. A matter of time. 
A time matter.</li>
<li>kane no mondai 金の問題 
A question of money. A matter of money. 
A money matter.</li>
<li>manga no egakikata 漫画の描き方 
The way-of-drawing of manga. 
A way to draw manga. How to draw manga.</li>
<li>hyaku nana-juu senti no <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/02/dakimakura-meaning.html">dakimakura</a> kabaa 170cmの抱き枕カバー 
A daki that measures 170cm. 
A 170cm daki.</li>
<li>kagebunshin no jutsu 影分身の術 
Technique of the shadow clone type. 
Shadow clone technique.</li>
<li>honoo no <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/05/mahou-majutsu-majo-meaning.html">mahou</a> 炎の魔法 
Magic of flame. Magic that casts a ball of fire. 
Fire magic.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Toaru <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/05/mahou-majutsu-majo-meaning.html">Majutsu</a> no Index とある魔術の禁書目録（インデックス） 
A Certain Index of Magic. 
A Certain Magical Index.</li>
<ul>
<li>indekkusu インデックス is the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/katakanization-meaning.html">katakanization</a> of "index," used as <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/gikun-reading-meaning.html">gikun 義訓</a> for "banned books' index," kinsho mokuroku 禁書目録.</li>
</ul>
<li>Aku no Hana 惡の華 
The Flower of Evil. 
The Evil Flower.</li>
<li>Kara no Kyoukai 空の境界 
The Boundary of the Emptiness. 
The Empty Boundary. 
(English title: The Garden of the Sinners.)</li>
<ul>
<li>karappo 空っぽ 
Empty. Vacant. Hollow.</li>
</ul>
<li>Hokuto no Ken 北斗の拳 
The Fist of the North Star. 
The North Star-Style Fist. (as in, martial arts.)</li>
<ul>
<li>Hokuto 北斗 seems to refer to the Big Dipper, a group of stars from Ursa Major, which means Fist of the North Star and Gravity Falls are in a way related to each other.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h4 id="material-and-composition">
Material & Composition</h4>
As you'd expect, this includes specifying of what something is made of. 
<ul>
<li>dou no yoroi 銅の鎧 
Armor made of copper. 
Copper armor.</li>
<li>chi to namida no kesshou 血と涙の結晶 
A crystallization made of blood and tears. 
The fruits of your sacrifices and hard work.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Hagane no Renkinjutsushi 鋼の錬金術師 
The Alchemist made of Steel. 
The Steel Alchemist. 
(English title: Fullmetal Alchemist.)</li>
<li>Hai to Gensou no Gurimugaru 灰と幻想のグリムガル 
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar 灰と幻想のグリムガル 
The Grimgar Made of Ashes and Illusions. 
(English title: Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions)</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="region-and-origin">
Region & Origin</h4>
The aspect may also be the region something is from, its origin. In English, we sometimes have separate adjective words to mean something "comes from" somewhere. For example: 
<ul>
<li>Itaria no piza イタリアのピザ 
Pizza of Italy. 
Italy's pizza. 
Italian pizza.</li>
<li>nihon no hito 日本の人 
People of Japan. 
Japanese people.</li>
<ul>
<li>When referring to people of countries, usually you use a noun compound suffixed by a <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/hito-nin-jin-difference.html">-jin ～人</a> <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/morphemes.html">morpheme</a> instead. See:</li>
<li>nihonjin 日本人 
Japanese person. Japanese people.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>taiyou no tsubasa 太陽の翼 
Wings of Sun. 
Solar wings.</li>
<li>taiyou no te wo motsu shounen 太陽の手を持つ少年 
The boy who had hands of Sun. 
The boy who had Solar hands.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Shidonia no Kishi シドニアの騎士 
The Knights of Sidonia. 
The Sidonian Knights.</li>
<li>Higashi no Eden 東のエデン 
The Eden of the East. 
The Eastern Eden.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="colors">
Colors</h4>
The <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>aoi 青い 
Blue. (i-adjective.)</li>
<li>ao 青 
Blue. (noun.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kuroi 黒い 
Black. (i-adjective.)</li>
<li>kuro 黒 
Black. (noun.)</li>
</ul>
 
This means there are two ways to describe something by color. For examples, to say a "white rose," you can say: 
<ul>
<li>shiroi bara 白いバラ 
shiro no bara 白のバラ 
White rose.</li>
</ul>
 
Both mean the same thing, they both describe a white rose. If there is a difference, it's in usage. Generally speaking, the i-adjective version of colors sound indefinite, while the the no-adjective versions sound finite. 
<ul>
<li>shiroi bara 白いバラ 
A white rose. Some white roses.</li>
<li>shiro no bara 白のバラ 
THE Rose OF THE White Color. 
THE White Rose.</li>
</ul>
 
And so the no-adjective variants end up showing in titles of anime more than the less definite sounding i-adjective variants. 
<ul>
<li>Ao no Exorcist 青の祓魔師（エクソシスト） 
The Exorcist of Blue. 
The Exorcist of the Blue Color. 
The Blue Exorcist.</li>
<ul>
<li>ekusoshisuto エクソシスト is the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/katakanization-meaning.html">katakanization</a> of the English word "exorcist," used as <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/gikun-reading-meaning.html">gikun 義訓</a> for the Japanese word "exorcist," futsumashi 祓魔師.</li>
</ul>
<li>Konjiki no Gasshu!! 金色のガッシュ!! 
The Gash of the Golden Color. 
The Golden Gash.</li>
<li>Darker than BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha- -黒の契約者- 
The Contractor of the Black Color. 
The Black Contractor.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="direct-attributes">
Direct Attributes</h3>
A rather distinct kind of no-adjective are no-adjectives that mean direct attributives of things, and that can therefore be used in the predicative, right before the da だ copula. For example: 
<ul>
<li>byouki 病気 
Sick.</li>
<li>byouki no hito 病気の人 
 Sick person.</li>
<li>kono hito ga byouki da この人が病気だ 
This person is sick.</li>
</ul>
 
At first glance there isn't a lot of difference, but consider the following: 
<ul>
<li>ryouri no hon 料理の本 
Cooking book. 
Book about cooking.</li>
</ul>
 
We can say a book is of cooking the way above. This is an indirect attributive. We know it's indirect because the predicative form doesn't make sense: 
<ul>
<li>kono hon ga ryouri da この本が料理だ 
This book is cooking. 
(what.)</li>
</ul>
 
The important thing about no-adjectives that are direct attributives is that they can behave like na-adjectives grammatically. In which case the no の is sometimes analyzed as an attributive copula, just like na な. 
 
For example, this means we can use the attributive past of na-adjectives with a no-adjective: 
<ul>
<li>byouki datta hito 病気だった人 
A person that was sick.</li>
<li>byouki denai hito 病気でない人 
A person that isn't sick.</li>
</ul>
 
Some other examples of direct no-adjectives: 
<ul>
<li>kono mangekyou <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/08/sharingan-byakugan-rinnegan-meaning.html">sharingan</a> ga eien da この万華鏡写輪眼が永遠だ 
This Mangekyou Sharingan is eternal.</li>
<li>eien no mangekyou sharingan 永遠の万華鏡写輪眼 
 Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Sakasama no Patema サカサマのパテマ 
Patema that is inverted. 
Inverted Patema.</li>
<ul>
<li>Title of an anime movie. Patema is a protagonist.</li>
<li>sakasama 逆様 was <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/words-written-with-katakana.html">written in katakana</a>, probably because <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/aesthetics-hiragana-katakana-kanji.html">katakana looks cooler</a> and it's a science fiction movie.</li>
</ul>
<li>Patema ga sakasama da パテマがサカサマだ 
Patema is inverted. 
Patema is upside down.</li>
</ul>
 
Note that some of these adjectives aren't usually used in the predicative. For example: 
<ul>
<li>shin no sugata 真の姿 
Form that's real. Form that's true. 
Real form. True form.</li>
<ul>
<li>E.g. one's final form, monstrous, powerful, as opposed to the feeble humanoid disguise.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Although shin 真 means "real" or "true," it's normally used as shin no 真の, "true [something]," rather than "[something] is true," something ga shin da ◯が真だ. 
<h4 id="superlatives">
Superlatives</h4>
Adjectives that are superlatives also fit this category. 
<ul>
<li>Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Ken'ichi 史上最強の弟子 ケンイチ 
The Disciple that is the Strongest in History: Ken'ichi. 
History's Strongest Disciple: Ken'ichi. 
(English title: KenIchi: The Mightiest Disciple.)</li>
<li>Hajime no Ippo はじめの一歩 
The First Single-Step. 
The First Step. 
(English title: Fighting Spirit.)</li>
<ul>
<li>Ippo is also the name of the protagonist, making the Japanese title a word-play.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h3 id="apposition">
Apposition</h3>
Apposition, or doukaku 同格, refers to when you have two phrases that refer to the same thing one beside the other. In English, we usually introduce an apposition with a comma, but we can use the preposition "of," which's what we for our genitive case, to do it too. 
 
In Japanese, a no-adjective can be part of an appositive in a way similar to the "of" preposition. 
 
For example: 
<ul>
<li>nihon 日本 
Japan.</li>
<li>nihon no kuni wa... 日本の国は… 
Japan, the country, [is]... 
The country, Japan, [is]... 
The country of Japan [is]...</li>
</ul>
 
There isn't much apposition can do that can't already be understood by other functions of the no-particle shown so far. So let's focus on what's new: it explains the way the no-adjective is used with family members. 
<ul>
<li>otouto no Sasuke 弟のサスケ</li>
<li>Sasuke of the younger brother.</li>
<ul>
<li>This is probably not what the phrase means, as it implies Sasuke is a possession of somebody's younger brother.</li>
</ul>
<li>Sasuke that is the younger brother.</li>
<ul>
<li>This is better, but using "that" there introduces a restrictive adjectival clause: it's saying that there might be a second Sasuke that's not the younger brother so we must specify we're talking about the Sasuke that IS the younger brother, which's likely unnecessary.</li>
</ul>
<li>Sasuke, the younger brother.</li>
<ul>
<li>Perfect! This is an appositive: Sasuke is the younger brother, the younger brother is Sasuke. We all know who we're talking about!</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
A lot of times appositives aren't translated as appositives, though. Probably because a lot of times it sounds weird. 
<ul>
<li>Tonari no Totoro となりのトトロ 
Totoro, the Neighbor. 
The Neighbor, Totoro. 
(English title: My Neighbor Totoro.)</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="directions">
Directions</h3>
The no の particle can be used with directional words like <a></a>no-adjective, it refers to a direction away from the qualifier. If it's part of the no-adjective, it qualifies where the noun is. For example: 
<ul>
<li>karada no migi 体の右 
The right of the body. The body's right. 
The right side of the body.</li>
<li>hidari no te 左の手 
The hand of the left. The hand of the left side. 
The left hand.</li>
</ul>
 
When up and down are involved, they often translate to above, atop, under, bottom, and so on. 
<ul>
<li>beddo no ue ベッドの上 
The above of the bed. The bed's above. 
Atop the bed. On the bed. Over the bed.</li>
<li>beddo no shita ベッドの下 
The below of the bed. The bed's below. 
Under the bed.</li>
</ul>
 
Also, if the ue or shita come before the no when talking about people, it usually carries an hierarchical meaning. 
<ul>
<li>ue no mono 上の者 
A person of above. Above's person. 
A superior. (e.g. I need to confirm with my superior.)</li>
</ul>
 
Of course, there are other directions besides up, down, left and right, like <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>mori no kita 森の北 
North of the forest.</li>
<li>hako no naka 箱の中 
Inside the box.</li>
<li>ie no soto 家の外 
Outside of the house.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Kyoukai no Kanata 境界の彼方 
That Side of the Boundary. 
(English title: Beyond the Boundary.)</li>
<ul>
<li>kanata 彼方 
That side. That direction. That way. 
Written with the kanji for "that" and "direction," hou 方. 
By the way, did you know that kanojo 彼女, "she," is literally "that woman"? Because kanokuni 彼の国 means "that country." And asoko written with kanji is asoko 彼処, literally "that" and "place," tokoro 処.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h4 id="densetsu-no-kinoshita">
Densetsu no Ki no Shita 伝説のキノシタ</h4>

Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu バカとテストと召喚獣 
(Episode 5)
<ul>
<li>Context: Akihisa confesses to Hideyoshi.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Akihisa:</li>
<li>Hideyoshi! suki jaa! 
秀吉！好きじゃー！ 
Hideyoshi! [I like you]!</li>
<ul>
<li>jaa じゃー 
The copula da だ pronounced euphorically.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Hideyoshi:</li>
<li>ikinari nani wo ii-dasu-n-ja?! 
いきなり何を言い出すんじゃ？！ 
What are you saying all of sudden?!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Akihisa:</li>
<li>kore niwa juudai na imi ga aru-n-da! 
これには重大な意味があるんだ！ 
There's an important meaning [behind] this!</li>
<li>Hideyoshi wa shiranai kamoshirenai kedo 
秀吉は知らないかもしれないけど 
Hideyoshi may not know this but,</li>
<li>nihon niwa densetsu no ki no shita de kokuhaku suru to 
shiawase ni nareru to-iu ii-tsutae ga aru 
日本には伝説の木の下で告白すると 
幸せになれるという言い伝えがある 
In Japan there's a folk tale that says if you confess under the legendary tree you'll become blessed.</li>
<ul>
<li>ii-tsutae 言い伝え 
A folk tale. A legend. 
Something that you "pass," tsutaeru 伝える, by "saying" it, iu 言う. In other words, a legend passed down by word of mouth.</li>
<li>shiawase ni nareru 幸せになれる 
May become happy. (literally.) 
But let me translate it as "blessed" here because it's like in "happy ending." 
Although before this scene Akihisa was saying there was "misfortune," or he was "unfortunate," literally "unhappy," fukou 不幸. So this whole development is him trying to fix that by becoming "happy," shiawase 幸せ.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Yuuji interjects:</li>
<li>ii-tsutae janai ga na... 言い伝えじゃないがな… 
It's not a legend, though...</li>
<ul>
<li>Because it's probably a reference to the 1996 dating sim game:</li>
<li>Tokimeki Memoriaru: Densetsu no Ki no Shita de 
ときめきメモリアル 伝説の樹の下で 
Tokimeki Memorial: Under the Legendary Tree.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Akihisa:</li>
<li>kono gakuen no densetsu no kinoshita to-ieba 
densetsu-teki na bishoujo 
 Kinoshita Hideyoshi no koto wo sasu! 
この学園の伝説のキノシタといえば 
伝説的な美少女 
木下秀吉の事を指す！ 
In this school, [when we talk about the] 
densetsu no ki no shita ("legendary under a tree") 
[we're talking about] 
the legendary-like beautiful girl 
Kinoshita Hideyoshi!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>tsumari kore wa 
Hideyoshi ni kokuhaku suru to 
shiawase ni nareru to-iu imi datta-n-da yo! 
つまりこれは 
秀吉に告白すると 
幸せになれるという意味だったんだよ！ 
In other words, this means that... 
if [I] confess to Hideyoshi, 
[I'll] become blessed!</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="verbs-involved-in-genitives">
Verbs Involved in Genitives</h3>
Verbs can be part of genitives in multiple ways, and since the fact a verb is a verb, not a noun, carries some added complexity, I figured they deserve their own section explaining how it works. 
<h4 id="agent-of-action">
Action's Agent</h4>
First off, the agent of an action in a phrase can be part of the genitive in another phrase involving the same action. 
 
Now, to recap: a verb means an action, and an action means an agent doing that action. In active voice, the agent is the subject, who's marked by the ga が particle. 
 
For example, say we have this phrase: 
<ul>
<li>sekai ga owaru 世界が終わる 
The world ends.</li>
<ul>
<li>sekai 世界 
The world.</li>
<li>ga が 
(marks previous word as the subject.)</li>
<li>owaru 終わる 
To end.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Then we change the verb owaru 終わる to its polite masu ます form: 
<ul>
<li>sekai ga owarimasu 世界が終わります 
The world ends. (polite way of saying.)</li>
</ul>
 
Now we replace the subject marker ga が with the genitive case marking particle no の and remove the masu suffix leaving only the masu-stem form of the verb owaru, also known as the "connective form," ren'youkei 連用形, which is the form in which the verb is treated as a noun: 
<ul>
<li>sekai no owari 世界の終わり 
The world's ending. 
The ending of the world.</li>
</ul>
 
And there we have it. We change from "the world ends," where we say it's happening, to "the ending of the world," where we merely refer to the happening. 
 
In most cases, the pattern above with the connective form is followed. For example: 
<ul>
<li>sekai ga hajimaru 世界が始まる 
The world begins.</li>
<li>sekai ga hajimarimasu 世界が始まります 
The world begins. (polite.)</li>
<li>sekai no hajimari 世界の始まり 
The world's beginning. 
The beginning of the world.</li>
</ul>
 
Although it's always grammatically correct, a lot of times there are better ways of saying it. For example: 
<ul>
<li>kare ga shinu 彼が死ぬ 
kare ga shinimasu 彼が死にます 
He dies.</li>
<li>kare no shini 彼の死に 
The dying of him. 
His dying. 
(people don't say this.)</li>
<li>kare no shi 彼の死 
His death. (possessive.)</li>
<ul>
<li>Although shi 死, "death," and shinu 死ぬ, "to die," are obviously related, one isn't an inflection of the other, so you won't be able to just remove the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/okurigana-meaning.html">okurigana</a> of another verb to get the same result.</li>
<li>For example: kaku 書く is "to write," but just ka 書 doesn't mean anything.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
With suru verbs, that is, nouns that become verbs by taking the suru auxiliary verb, we can simply remove the suru auxiliary to get the noun. 
<ul>
<li>haha ga kodomo wo ai suru 母が子供を愛する 
The mother loves the child.</li>
<ul>
<li>haha ga 母が 
The mother (subject)</li>
<li>ai 愛 
Love. (noun.)</li>
<li>suru する 
To do.</li>
<li>ai suru 愛する 
To do "love." 
To love.</li>
</ul>
<li>haha no ai 母の愛 
The mother's love. 
The love of the mother. 
The love done by the mother.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kusuri ga kouka suru 薬が効果する 
The drug effects. The drug has effect.</li>
<li>kusuri no kouka 薬の効果 
The effect of the drug.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>anime ga eikyou suru アニメが影響する 
Anime influences.</li>
<li>anime no eikyou de nihongo wo manabu アニメの影響で日本語を学ぶ 
To study Japanese because of anime's influence.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>hakkekkyuu ga hataraku 白血球 
White-blood cells work. (as in, they function, perform their functions.)</li>
<li>tainai ni shin'nyuu shita byougentai wa 
hakkekkyuu no hataraki ni yotte haijo sareru 
体内に侵入した病原体は 
白血球の働きによって排除される 
The pathogens that infiltrated the inside of the body 
are exterminated by the work of the white-blood cells.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Kino ga Tabi Suru キノが旅する 
Kino Journeys.</li>
<li>Kino no Tabi キノの旅 
Kino's Journey. 
The Journey of Kino.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Kuroko ga Basuke Suru 黒子がバスケする 
Kuroko Baskets. Kuroko does Basket. 
Kuroko Basketballs. Kuroko does Basketball.</li>
<li>Kuroko no Basuke 黒子のバスケ 
Kuroko's Basketball. 
The Basketball of Kuroko.</li>
</ul>
 
And, of course, not even this pattern is free from Japanese's extreme ambiguity. Specially when you can have <a></a><a></a> 
<ul>
<li>riaru リアル 
Real. 
Real life. (as opposed to virtual life.)</li>
<li>juujitsu suru 充実する 
To be complete. To be full. To be replenished.</li>
<li>riajuu リア充 
Someone satisfied with their real life. 
A "normie" to antisocial nerds and internet addicts.</li>
<li>netojuu ネト充 
Someone satisfied with their internet life. 
An internet addict or antisocial nerd to a normie.</li>
<li>Neto-Juu ga Susumeru ネト充が進める 
Someone satisfied with their internet life progresses. 
An internet addict progresses. (as in, toward the recovery of their addiction.)</li>
<li>Neto-Juu ga Susumeru ネト充が勧める 
Someone satisfied with their internet life recommends.</li>
<li>Neto-Juu no Susume ネト充のススメ</li>
</ul><ol>
<li>The Recommendations of Someone Satisfied with their Internet Life.</li>
<li>The Progress of an Internet Addict.</li>
</ol>
<li>(English title: Recovery of an MMO Junkie.)</li>

The title of the anime above can be interpreted in two ways: the main character is having fun with their net-life and is "recommending" things to do if you're an internet addict; or, the main character is sickly addicted to internet and is having "progress" in treating it. 
<h4 id="verb-as-no-adjective">
Verb as No-Adjective</h4>
Sometimes you have a verb that's not modified by a no-adjective but that's actually part of the no-adjective. This is different from the above, and in this case the verb is just a noun. 
<ul>
<li>Owari no Serafu 終わりのセラフ 
Owari no Seraph 終わりのセラフ 
Seraph of the End.</li>
<ul>
<li>Not "The Ending of Seraph," so it doesn't grammatically come from "Seraph ends [something]."</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Of course, you can chain multiple no-adjectives too: 
<ul>
<li>{Natsu no Owari} no Amaoto ga 夏の終わりの雨音が 
The Sound-of-Rain of {the Ending of the Summer} [is].</li>
<ul>
<li>Title of a Love Live! song.</li>
</ul>
<li>Natsu no {Owari no Amaoto} ga 夏の終わりの雨音が 
The Summer's {Sound-of-Rain of the End} [is].</li>
<ul>
<li>An unlikely interpretation.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h4 id="patient-of-action">
Action's Patient</h4>
The genitive can also contain the patient of an action of another phrase. That is, of whom the action is done upon. In active voice, this is the direct object the phrase, marked by the wo を particle. 
<ul>
<li>sentaku 洗濯 
Laundry. 
(not to be confused with the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/homonyms-in-japanese.html">homonym</a> sentaku 選択, "choice.")</li>
<li>sentaku wo arau 選択を洗う 
To wash laundry.</li>
<li>sentaku no arai 洗濯の洗い 
The washing of laundry [by someone].</li>
</ul>
 
In passive voice, the patient is the subject marked by the ga が particle. 
<ul>
<li>nusumu 盗む 
To steal.</li>
<li>nusumareru 盗まれる 
To be stolen. (passive conjugation.)</li>
<li>houseki ga nusumareru 宝石が盗まれる 
The jewels will be stolen [by someone]. 
The jewels are stolen [by someone.]</li>
<li>houseki no nusumi 宝石の盗み 
The stealing of the jewels [done by someone].</li>
<li>houseki no nusumi ga ooi 宝石の盗みが多い 
[There's] a lot of stealing of the jewels [happening].</li>
<li>houseki no nusumi wa akirameru 宝石の盗みは諦める 
To give up on the stealing of the jewels. 
To give up on stealing the jewels.</li>
</ul>
 
Note that it's actually grammatically impossible to tell apart the agent from the patient genitives. For example: 
<ul>
<li>kodomo no nusumi 子供の盗み 
The stealing of the children.</li>
</ul><ol>
<li>The stealing done by the children. 
Your children stole something!</li>
<li>The stealing done upon the children. 
Someone stole the children!</li>
</ol>

Of course, just because it's grammatically ambiguous doesn't mean that it's ambiguous in practice. In the case above, we can safely assume the children stole something, and not that someone "stole" the children, as that doesn't make much sense. 
<h4 id="ambiguity-of-verb-nouns">
Ambiguity of Verb Nouns</h4>
Not every time you have a verb in its noun form after a no-adjective it's going to be something like the above. After all, Japanese is a language full of ambiguities. For example: 
<ul>
<li>tsukau 使う 
To use.</li>
<li>mahou no tsukai 魔法の使い</li>
</ul><ol>
<li>Use of magic. (unlikely.)</li>
<li>User of magic. (likely.)</li>
</ol>
<li>tsukai 使い</li>
<ol>
<li>Use [of something.]</li>
<li>An user. Someone who uses something.</li>
</ol>
<li>kusari no tsukai 鎖の使い</li>
<ol>
<li>A chain's use. 
(e.g. how Kurapika uses the chain.)</li>
<li>A chain's user. 
(e.g. Kurapika himself.)</li>
</ol>

<h4 id="genitives-and-transitivity">
Genitives and Transitivity</h4>
Beware of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, as they affect the genitives that come from them. 
<ul>
<li>tamashii ga kiyomaru 魂が清まる 
The soul cleanses.</li>
<ul>
<li>Agent, intransitive verb.</li>
</ul>
<li>tamashii ga kiyomeru 魂が清める 
The soul cleanses [something].</li>
<ul>
<li>Agent, transitive verb.</li>
</ul>
<li>tamashii ga kiyomerareru 魂が清められる 
The soul is cleansed [by something].</li>
<ul>
<li>Patient.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>tamashii no kiyome 魂の清め 
The cleansing of the soul.</li>
<ul>
<li>Agent: the soul has cleansed something, the phrase refers to "the cleansing" that the soul has inflected upon something.</li>
<li>Patient: the soul has been cleansed by something, the phrase refer to how [you] or [someone] did "the cleansing of the soul."</li>
</ul>
<li>tamashii no kiyomari 魂の清まり 
The cleansing of the soul.</li>
<ul>
<li>Agent: the soul has cleansed, the phrase refers to that fact. It doesn't imply anybody cleansed it, just that it became cleansed: on its own, for example.</li>
<li>No patient form since this comes from an intransitive verb.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Although the difference isn't very big in the end, tamashii no kiyome implies something else is involved in this cleansing business besides the soul: as it must either cleanse something or be cleansed by something. The word kiyomari doesn't carry this implication. 
<h3 id="usage-with-particles">
Particles Particulars</h3>
<h4 id="no-instead-of-ga-in-relative-clauses">
の Instead of が in Relative Clauses</h4>
Sometimes, the no の particle is used instead of the ga が particle to mark the subject of a relative adjectival clause. Although this isn't literally a case of no-adjectives, relative clauses are adjectives, so I feel this should be mentioned in this article too: 
<ul>
<li>kamisama ga Inai 神さまがいない 
God isn't [here.] 
God [doesn't exist.]</li>
<li>kamisama ga Inai Nichiyoubi 神さまがいない日曜日 
The Sunday in which God isn't [here.] 
The Sunday in which God [doesn't exist.] 
The Sundays... (etc.)</li>
<li>Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi 神さまのいない日曜日 
(same as above.) 
(English title: Sunday Without God.)</li>
</ul>
 
For further reference: 
 
<h4 id="ga-instead-of-no-as-possessive-marker">
が Instead of の as Possessive Marker</h4>
Sometimes, the ga が particle is used instead of the no の particle to create a possessive adjective. This usage is rather old, and in modern Japanese it's limited to a few specific cases. 
 
The most common one is the possessive of the first person pronoun <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>watashi 私 
ware 我 
I. Me.</li>
<li>watashi no 私の 
waga 我が 
My.</li>
</ul>
 
The second case are names of places. 
<ul>
<li>hara 原 
Plains. Fields. Prairie.</li>
<li>senjou 戦場 
Battlefield.</li>
<li>senjou no hara 戦場の原 
senjou ga hara 戦場が原 
Plains of battlefield.</li>
</ul>
 
Using in names of things is generally frowned upon, likely because <a></a>ga が particle tends to be spelled as a <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>Senjougahara 戦場ヶ原 
Battlefield plains.</li>
</ul>
 
There are also cases where the ga vanished with time as people found more and more lazy ways to refer to that place. 
<ul>
<li>akiba no hara 秋葉の原 
akiba ga hara 秋葉が原 
akibagahara 秋葉ヶ原 
ahibahara 秋葉原 
akihabara アキハバラ 
akiba アキバ 
Plains of Autumn Leaves.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="deno-karano-madeno-eno">
での, からの, までの, への</h4>
The no-particle can come after a number of other particles to create an adjectival clauses. For example: 
<ul>
<li>mirai e 未来 
Future.</li>
<li>mirai e へ 
Toward the future.</li>
<li>mirai e no kibou 未来への希望 
Hopes toward the future.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>sayonara サヨナラ 
Goodbye.</li>
<li>sayonara made サヨナラまで 
Until goodbye.</li>
<li>Sayonara Made no Aida サヨナラまでのあいだ 
The interval until goodbye. 
The [time] until goodbye.</li>
<ul>
<li>Title of a song.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>okyakusan kara no irai お客さんからの依頼 
Requests from clients. 
A request from a client.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>seikatsu suru 生活する 
To live. (somewhere, somehow.)</li>
<ul>
<li>This is a verb created with the suru auxiliary.</li>
<li>You can turn it into a noun by removing the suru.</li>
<li>seikatsu 生活 
Living. Livelihood.</li>
</ul>
<li>isekai de seikatsu suru 異世界で生活する 
To live in another world.</li>
<ul>
<li>isekai de 異世界で 
In another world. (adverb.)</li>
<li>isekai de no 異世界での 
In another world. (adjective.)</li>
</ul>
<li>isekai de no seikatsu 異世界での生活 
The livelihood in another world.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="usage-with-suffixes">
Suffixes</h3>
Sometimes a no-adjective is a suffix that's combined with another adjective for form a more complex phrase. 
<h4 id="tame-no">
-Tame no ～ための</h4>
The phrase tame no ための is a no-adjective for the word "purpose," tame ため. It usually works like this: 
<ul>
<li>Something you want tame no requirement.</li>
<li>Action you want to perform tame no requirement.</li>
</ul>
 
For example: 
<ul>
<li>henshin suru 変身する 
To transform.</li>
<li>henshin suru tame 変身するため 
The purpose of transforming. 
In order to transform.</li>
<li>henshin suru tame no aitemu 変身するためのアイテム 
An item for the purpose of transforming. 
An item [you need in order] to transform.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>katsu tame no senryaku 勝つための戦略 
The strategy for the purpose of winning. 
The strategy [needed] to win. 
The strategy [necessary to emerge victorious].</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="you-no">
-You no ～用の</h4>
The phrase you no 用の is a no-adjective for the word "use," you 用. This word is a bit complicated because it usually means by whom something is used, or to whom something is made to be used, or for what purpose something is made to be used, and so on. 
 
For example: 
<ul>
<li>doubutsu 動物 
Animal.</li>
<li>doubutsu you 動物用 
Animal use. 
For use by animals. 
Made to be used by animals.</li>
<li>doubutsu you no kusuri 動物用の薬 
Medicine for animal use. 
Medicine for use by animals. 
Medicine made to be used by animals. 
(people don't use it.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>oo are! Doku ne. おおアレ！毒ね。 
Oh, that! Poison, [right]?</li>
<li>Kusuko you no doku. クスコ用の毒。 
The poison for Kuzco's use.</li>
<li>Kusuko wo korosu tame no supesharu na doku. クスコを殺すためのスペシャルな毒。 
The special poison made to kill Kuzko.</li>
<li>karada ni warusou na doku. 体に悪そうな毒。 
The poison that seems bad for the body.</li>
<li>...</li>
<li>sono doku その毒？ 
That poison?</li>
<li>sou! sono doku! そう！その毒！ 
[Yeah]! That poison!</li>
<li>*Kronk grabs poison.*</li>
<li>kono doku ne! この毒ね！ 
This poison, [right]?!</li>
<li>— The Emperor's New Groove, Japanese version: Rama ni Natta Ou-Sama ラマになった王様, "The King who Became a Llama."</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="examples-of-expressions">
Expressions</h3>
Beware of set-phrases and expressions that include no-adjectives, because they either don't make much sense or don't follow the rules above. 
 
For example: 
<ul>
<li>ki no doku 気の毒 
The poison of the feeling. (literally.) 
[It's a pity.] 
[That's unfortunate.]</li>
</ul>
 
For colors, the no-adjective and i-adjective variants are not interchangeable in set expressions. 
<ul>
<li>aka no tanin 赤の他人 
akai tanin 赤い他人 
A red other person. Someone (who isn't you) who is red. 
(this meaning applies to both variants.)</li>
<li>aka no tanin 赤の他人 
A complete stranger. 
(this expression only applies to aka no)</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="attributive-copula-no">
Attributive Copula No の</h2>
In some situations, no-adjectives are identical to <a></a>no の gets analyzed as an attributive copula, just like na な gets analyzed as an attributive copula. 
 
These situations would be those where you can write the no-adjective in the predicative by switching the no with the predicative copula da だ. 
<ul>
<li>kono koukousei ga futsuu da この高校生が普通だ 
This high-school student is normal.</li>
<li>futsuu no koukousei 普通の高校生 
A normal high-school student.</li>
</ul>
 
The only difference is that for nouns no の tends to be used instead of na な. But that's about it. In this case, the inflection of no-adjective to past, negative, etc. mirrors the inflection of na-adjectives. 
<ul>
<li>futsuu 普通 
Normal. (noun.)</li>
<li>futsuu no 普通の 
Normal. (no-adjective.)</li>
<li>futsuu no koukousei 普通の高校生 
A high-school student that is normal. 
A normal high-school student.</li>
<li>futsuu datta koukousei 普通だった高校生 
A high-school student that was normal. 
An once normal high-school student.</li>
<li>futsuu denai koukousei 普通でない高校生 
A high-school student that is not normal. 
An abnormal high-school student.</li>
<li>futsuu de heibon na koukousei 普通で平凡な高校生 
A high-school student that is normal and common.</li>
<li>heibon de futsuu no koukousei 平凡で普通の高校生 
A high-school student that is common and normal.</li>
<li>futsuu sa 普通さ 
Normal-ness.</li>
<li>futsuu-sou 普通そう 
Seems normal.</li>
</ul>
 
Again: the above only makes sense when no-adjectives describes things directly. When you have possessives or any other kind of no-adjective none of the above makes sense. For example: 
<ul>
<li>watashi no neko 私の猫 
My cat.</li>
<li>watashi datta neko 私だった猫 
The cat that was mine. (WRONG!!!) 
(this form must come from the predicative with da, not from the possessive!)</li>
<li>neko ga watashi da 猫が私だ 
The cat is me.</li>
<li>watashi datta neko 私だった猫 
The cat that was me.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="further-reading">
Further Reading</h2>
 

The term-adjective refers to <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/01/japanese-adjectives.html">Japanese adjectives</a> created by adding theの particle after a noun. Generally speaking, "noun--noun" uses the first noun to describe the second noun somehow. This is also called the "genitive case."The term "-adjective" is mostly used when teaching Japanese to non-native speakers, because a noun marked by the genitive case-marking particleの acts like an adjective.There doesn't seem to be a Japanese equivalent for this term. Some books don't use the term at all. Furthermore,-adjectives can be used in a hundred different ways, so it'd be very difficult to explain what is a-adjective exactly, and perhaps even a futile effort.Anyways:The term "genitive case" refers to having a noun as modifying another word, usually a noun. That is, having a noun as adjective. In English, this is usually associated with the "possessive" case, in which a noun possesses the other. For example:However, the genitive case isn't limited only to possessions. The translation above using "of" and the contraction "'s" will not work for all cases. For example, sometimes the genitive describes what something is or is made of:There's no way to tell what variant of the genitive case a-adjective is just by looking at it. You have to guess from context and from the nouns involved.This means that there's ambiguity on whatの really means in a phrase if you don't have necessary context. And it means that a same phraseの phrase can mean two different things in two different contexts where they have two different variants of the genitive case. For example:When we try to connectto, our first guess is probably going to be the possessive: "the child of a woman," that is, "a woman's child." However, the termmeans "a child that is a woman," instead. In other words: a "girl."That isn't to sayalways means "girl." It usually means "girl."But say you're reading a manga and a character says the phrase above while he pointing at an elder woman. Naturally, anisn't a "that is a woman," so "that girl" doesn't work here. Instead, we'd have to interpret it as:Although the above is a rather far-fetched example, it illustrates that the same-adjective can mean two different things in two different contexts.Of course, even if such ambiguity didn't exist, there's still the ambiguity of <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/plurals-in-japanese-grammar.html">Japanese plurals</a> and the lack of <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/definite-indefinite-articles.html">a, an, the, definite and indefinite articles</a> , so you never get rid of ambiguity anyway.But not everything is an ambiguous Asiatic nightmare. Japanese words do tend to make sense and follow a semblance of logic, and-adjectives often mean the same thing in different contexts.On the other hand, English and Japanese are still different languages. So sometimes even if two-adjectives work the same way, the way they become translated to English is different. Which is just another reason why you shouldn't rely on translations too much.In the phrase above, the word "mystery,"謎, became "myster,"謎の. This is the exact same function of the word "legend" that came from "legend."Note that in English "mystery" got an "-ious" suffix, while legend got an "-ary" suffix. In Japanese we simply added aの both times. So the way you translate the-adjective to English varies depending on the noun even when it performs the same function.Sometimes, a noun works as an adjective for a second nountheの particle. That is, it's a noun right next another noun.For example, <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/nekomimi-meaning.html">nekomimi 猫耳</a> , "cat ears," is the noun compound version of猫の耳.Noun compounds are not to be confused withcompounds, which are words composed of more than oneFor example, <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/07/baka-meaning.html">baka 馬鹿</a> , "idiot," has two, but is just one noun.Furthermore, eachof acompound may have its own <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/kanji-meanings.html">meaning</a> and represent a <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/morphemes.html">morpheme</a> even if it's not a stand-alone word noun. The word馬鹿 is composed by morphemes that mean "horse,"馬, and "deer,"鹿, for example.There are also cases like女子, which is <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/same-kanji-different-word.html">written with the same kanji</a> as女の子. Itshave different <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/kanji-readings.html">readings</a> , and the word itself has a different meaning: although bothandcan be translated as "girl,"is usually older than, which is used toward young children.For reference, some examples of how-adjectives are used to help you understand them.Here's a chart of-adjectives' functions, summarizing it all.The most common usage of-adjectives is talk about possessions. Theparticle marks the possessor, and what comes after is the possession, sometimes called the possessee.Note that normally when you think of the word "possession" you think of a physical object that can be taken away. This isn't always the case with possessive adjectives. Possessives can refer to attributes and concepts that don't exist physically but are "of" somebody or something.That said, not everything that is "of" is a possession. A spoon of silver is "" silver, but you can't say "silvera spoon," so it isn't one of silver's possession. Meanwhile, "silvera conductivity," so that's a possession, and you can say "conductivitysilver."Theparticle is often used to make possessives out of <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/japanese-pronouns.html">personal pronouns</a> . For example:Theparticle is also embedded in the demonstrative pronouns <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/kono-sono-ano-dono-meaning.html">kono, sono, ano, and dono</a> . These are the adjectival equivalents of <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/kore-sore-are-dore-meaning.html">kore, sore, are and dore</a> . They aren't possessives, though.Places are a tricky kind of noun. Most of the time, places are possessions. You own a place.But, thousands of years of human civilization aside, what makes it so you can claim you "own" a place? Do you own land just by putting a flag on it? If you live in a house, does it automatically make it your house?At first glance, there's not much difference between one and other. But consider the following phrase:The concept of a piano owning a forest is ridiculous. Therefore, the phrase must mean that there's a piano in the forest, hence why it's the piano's forest: it's the forest in which the piano resides.In English, we can also use noun compounds when something resides in something. For example:This is similar to how a "juice box" is a box thatjuice, not a box owned by juice.Also, in English, we can inflect the noun into an adjective instead of using noun compounds. For example:The-adjectives can be used with <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/japanese-numbers-ichi-ni-san.html">numbers</a> for <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/counting-japanese-counters.html">counting</a> the quantity of a given noun. That is, when the possessor is a counter, it counts the possession. For example:This also works for nouns that imply vague numbers.Another way-adjectives and numbers relate are in partitives.When the possession is a number, the-adjective may form a partitive: a phrase that describes a portion of a whole. For example:The above are what are called "entity partitives," since we're talking about a percentage of a whole. (a percentage of a cake, the human race, or the question.)Another type of partitives are the "set partitives," where we talk about a number of individual units from a larger set of units. For example:The above can mean "one of the cats" of a defined group, like you had four cats and something happened to one of the four.It can also simply mean "one cat" without implying that there's a group or anything because you can also interpret it like:The phraseの一つ means "one of." It's commonly used when you're talking of "one of" many things. For example:The expressionのひとつやふたつ, meaning "one, two, [or more] of," is generally used when talking about something you're supposed to have at least one of. Specially when that's obvious, or expected, or maybe when someone assumed the opposite.The phraseの一人 also means "one of," but is used toward people instead.Of course, you can interpret these as attributives instead of partitives:Although not exactly the same thing,-adjectives can be used similarly to indicate someone is a member of a given group. For example:Similarly, in archaic Japanese, sometimes somebody's name is written with aの between the family name and their given name, as if the family was a group they were a member of. For example:To be honest I'm not sure if these are family names or clan names, and if they are given names or aliases. Japan was full of name-switching traditions.For reference:In Japanese, names of people are traditionally written withonly, no. Since theの particle is written with, it may be left unwritten in some names of people. That is, it gets read as if it was there, but isn't spelled.Literally.For example:Another common use of-adjectives is to describe things by their. If you have a noun that works as a quality of something, adding theparticle turns it into a category-like word that classifies the following noun. For example:As you'd expect, this includes specifying of what something is made of.The aspect may also be the region something is from, its origin. In English, we sometimes have separate adjective words to mean something "comes from" somewhere. For example:The <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/names-of-colors-in-japanese.html">words for colors in Japanese</a> are a bit weird because some of the most common colors have two versions: a noun version, and an adjective version.This means there are two ways to describe something by color. For examples, to say a "white rose," you can say:Both mean the same thing, they both describe a white rose. If there is a difference, it's in usage. Generally speaking, the-adjective version of colors sound indefinite, while the the no-adjective versions sound finite.And so the-adjective variants end up showing in titles of anime more than the less definite sounding-adjective variants.A rather distinct kind of-adjective are-adjectives that meanattributives of things, and that can therefore be used in the predicative, right before theだ copula. For example:At first glance there isn't a lot of difference, but consider the following:We can say a book iscooking the way above. This is anattributive. We know it's indirect because the predicative form doesn't make sense:The important thing about-adjectives that are direct attributives is that they can behave like-adjectives grammatically. In which case theの is sometimes analyzed as an attributive copula, just likeな.For example, this means we can use the attributive past of-adjectives with a-adjective:Some other examples of direct-adjectives:Note that some of these adjectives aren't usually used in the predicative. For example:Although真 means "real" or "true," it's normally used as真の, "true [something]," rather than "[something] is true,"◯が真だ.Adjectives that are superlatives also fit this category.Apposition, or同格, refers to when you have two phrases that refer to the same thing one beside the other. In English, we usually introduce an apposition with a comma, but we can use the preposition "of," which's what we for our genitive case, to do it too.In Japanese, a-adjective can be part of an appositive in a way similar to the "of" preposition.For example:There isn't much apposition can do that can't already be understood by other functions of the-particle shown so far. So let's focus on what's new: it explains the way the-adjective is used with family members.A lot of times appositives aren't translated as appositives, though. Probably because a lot of times it sounds weird.Theの particle can be used with directional words like <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/up-down-left-right-in-japanese.html">up, down, left, right</a> in various ways. If the directional word is qualified by the-adjective, it refers to a direction away from the qualifier. If it's part of the-adjective, it qualifies where the noun is. For example:When up and down are involved, they often translate to above, atop, under, bottom, and so on.Also, if theorcome before thewhen talking about people, it usually carries an hierarchical meaning.Of course, there are other directions besides up, down, left and right, like <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/north-south-east-west-in-japanese.html">north, south, east, west</a> , etc.:Verbs can be part of genitives in multiple ways, and since the fact a verb is a verb, not a noun, carries some added complexity, I figured they deserve their own section explaining how it works.First off, the agent of an action in a phrase can be part of the genitive in another phrase involving the same action.Now, to recap: a verb means an action, and an action means an agent doing that action. In active voice, the agent is the subject, who's marked by theが particle.For example, say we have this phrase:Then we change the verb終わる to its politeます form:Now we replace the subject markerが with the genitive case marking particleの and remove thesuffix leaving only the-stem form of the verb, also known as the "connective form,"連用形, which is the form in which the verb is treated as a noun:And there we have it. We change from "the world ends," where we say it's happening, to "the ending of the world," where we merely refer to the happening.In most cases, the pattern above with the connective form is followed. For example:Although it's always grammatically correct, a lot of times there are better ways of saying it. For example:Withverbs, that is, nouns that become verbs by taking theauxiliary verb, we can simply remove theauxiliary to get the noun.And, of course, not even this pattern is free from Japanese's extreme ambiguity. Specially when you can have <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/homonyms-in-japanese.html">homonyms</a> and <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/words-written-without-kanji.html">writing words without kanji</a> The title of the anime above can be interpreted in two ways: the main character is having fun with their net-life and is "recommending" things to do if you're an internet addict; or, the main character is sickly addicted to internet and is having "progress" in treating it.Sometimes you have a verb that's not modified by a-adjective but that's actually part of the-adjective. This is different from the above, and in this case the verb is just a noun.Of course, you can chain multiple-adjectives too:The genitive can also contain the patient of an action of another phrase. That is, of whom the action is done upon. In active voice, this is the direct object the phrase, marked by theを particle.In passive voice, the patient is the subject marked by theが particle.Note that it's actually grammatically impossible to tell apart the agent from the patient genitives. For example:Of course, just because it's grammatically ambiguous doesn't mean that it's ambiguous in practice. In the case above, we can safely assume the children stole something, and not that someone "stole" the children, as that doesn't make much sense.Not every time you have a verb in its noun form after a-adjective it's going to be something like the above. After all, Japanese is a language full of ambiguities. For example:Beware of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, as they affect the genitives that come from them.Although the difference isn't very big in the end,implies something else is involved in this cleansing business besides the soul: as it must either cleanseor be cleansed. The worddoesn't carry this implication.Sometimes, theの particle is used instead of theが particle to mark the subject of a relative adjectival clause. Although this isn't literally a case of-adjectives, relative clauses are adjectives, so I feel this should be mentioned in this article too:For further reference:Sometimes, theが particle is used instead of theの particle to create a possessive adjective. This usage is rather old, and in modern Japanese it's limited to a few specific cases.The most common one is the possessive of the first person pronoun <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/08/watashi-boku-ore-meaning.html#ware">ware 我</a> The second case are names of places.Usingin names of things is generally frowned upon, likely because <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/aesthetics-hiragana-katakana-kanji.html">kanji looks more authoritative</a> . Maybe because of this, thisが particle tends to be spelled as a <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/08/small-ke.html">small katakana ke ケ-looking symbol</a> instead.There are also cases where thevanished with time as people found more and more lazy ways to refer to that place.The-particle can come after a number of other particles to create an adjectival clauses. For example:Sometimes a-adjective is a suffix that's combined with another adjective for form a more complex phrase.The phraseための is a-adjective for the word "purpose,"ため. It usually works like this:For example:The phrase用の is a-adjective for the word "use,"用. This word is a bit complicated because it usually means by whom something is used, or to whom something is made to be used, or for what purpose something is made to be used, and so on.For example:Beware of set-phrases and expressions that include-adjectives, because they either don't make much sense or don't follow the rules above.For example:For colors, the-adjective and-adjective variants are not interchangeable in set expressions.In some situations,-adjectives areto <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/11/na-adjectives.html">na-adjectives</a> . Even down to the fact thatの gets analyzed as an attributive copula, just likeな gets analyzed as an attributive copula.These situations would be those where you can write the-adjective in the predicative by switching the no with the predicative copulaだ.The only difference is thatの tends to be used instead ofな. But that's about it. In this case, the inflection of-adjective to past, negative, etc. mirrors the inflection of-adjectives.Again: the above only makes sense when no-adjectives describes things directly. When you have possessives or any other kind of no-adjective none of the above makes sense. For example:</div>

No-Adjectives in Japanese

no -adjective refers to no の particle after a noun. Generally speaking, "noun- no -noun" uses the first noun to describe the seco...

Japanese Adjectives

<div> 
 
<a name="more"></a><h2 id="what-is-an-adjective">
What's an Adjective?</h2>
An adjective is something that qualifies, specifies, describes, details, etc. something else. Adjectives can be words or phrases. And the "something else" that they describe is a noun. 
 
For example, say you have the word "car." That's a noun. 
 
Now say there's a bunch of cars out there and you want to specify which car exactly you're talking about. You gotta describe it. With an adjective: 
<ul>
<li>The blue car.</li>
<ul>
<li>Blue: 
Adjective for the noun car.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
But sometimes a single word isn't enough to describe the noun. You need more! You need a whole phrase: 
<ul>
<li>The car with feet.</li>
<ul>
<li>With: 
Preposition that introduces an adjective phrase.</li>
<li>Feet: 
Something that car has?! 
Wow. That's specific.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
And sometimes we describe nouns by an action performed by the noun or upon the noun. In either case, the noun is subject of a clause, a subordinate adjective clause. 
<ul>
<li>The car crashes into a tree.</li>
<ul>
<li>Car: 
Subject. Agent.</li>
<li>To crash into: 
Verb.</li>
<li>A tree: 
Victim. Object/Patient.</li>
</ul>
<li>The car that crashed into the tree.</li>
<ul>
<li>That: 
Preposition that introduces a subordinate clause.</li>
<li>Crashed into the tree: 
Subordinate clause describing something. 
In this case: the car.</li>
</ul>
<li>The car was bought by him.</li>
<ul>
<li>Car: 
Subject. Patient.</li>
<li>Him: 
Agent.</li>
</ul>
<li>That car that he bought.</li>
<ul>
<li>That: preposition.</li>
<li>He bought: description.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Disregarding the specifics, adjectives generally boil down to two kinds: lone words and phrases or clauses. One is obviously simpler than the other. 
 
The clauses are also sometimes called "relative clauses." And words like "that," "who," etc. are sometimes called "relative pronouns." 
 
There's also more specific kinds worth nothing about: 
 
Words like "my," "your," "his," "Jack's," etc. They're called "possessive adjectives," because they describe something is possessed by someone or something else. 
 
Phrases like "very cold," "very blue," where you have a word modifying the adjective work. 
 
Appositives like "Kamina, my brother, believes in me" where you have a description right after the noun, without a preposition. (you could say "Kamina, who is my brother, believes in me," but that's different.) 
<h2 id="how-adjectives-work-in-japanese">
How Adjectives Work in Japanese?</h2>
The way adjectives work in Japanese is pretty different to how it works in English. They share a little tiny bit of similarity, and then it's all different. 
<h3 id="basic-adjectives">
Basic Adjectives</h3>
First off, ignoring technicalities, Japanese adjectives pretty much always come before the noun. Just like English: 
<ul>
<li>aoi kuruma 青い車 
Blue car.</li>
<li>kimyou na kuruma 奇妙な車 
Bizarre car.</li>
<li>yume no kuruma 夢の車 
Dream car.</li>
<li>kare no kuruma 彼の車 
His car.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="intensifiers">
Intensifiers</h3>
Intensifiers and other adverbs also come right before the adjective, just like in English: 
<ul>
<li>oishii keeki 美味しいケーキ 
Tasty cake.</li>
<li>totemo oishii keeki とても美味しいケーキ 
Very tasty cake.</li>
<li>samui 寒い 
Cold.</li>
<li>sukoshi samui 少し寒い 
A bit cold.</li>
</ul>
 
Sometimes the translation doesn't match literally, but so long it's intense the meaning is conveyed. 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/sugoi-meaning.html">sugoi 凄い</a> 
Incredible.</li>
<li>MECHAKUCHA SUGEEEEeeee!1!1111 メチャクチャすげぇぇぇーーーーっ！ 
AWWWWSSUUUUUMMMMMnnndefjnsdkfdsfknskdfsdfnlsnf</li>
</ul>
 
The problem is, Japanese adjectives pretty, pretty, PRETTY much always come before the noun. Even when they don't in English. 
<h3 id="adjective-phrases-and-clauses">
Adjective Phrases and Clauses</h3>
Specifically, adjective phrases and relative clauses that would come after the noun in English come before the noun in Japanese: 
<ul>
<li>ashi ga aru 足がある 
To have feet.</li>
<li>ashi no aru kuruma 足のある車 
Car that has feet. 
Car with feet.</li>
<li>ki ni butsukaru 木にぶつかる 
To crash into a tree.</li>
<li>ki ni butsukatta kuruma 木にぶつかった車 
Car that crashed into a tree.</li>
</ul>
 
Another pretty big difference is that Japanese literally doesn't have prepositions. That's right: no prepositions. None of "that," "who," "of," etc. Japanese has postpositions, these come after, not before, they're called "particles," by the way. But prepositions? That western backwards stuff? Nope! 
 
This can be seen by the fact that there's really nothing connecting those relative clauses to the nouns. 
 
If you have a clause, those things that end in a verb in Japanese, and you add a noun after the verb, it instantly turns into an adjective clause. Just like that: 
<ul>
<li>shaberu 喋る 
To speak.</li>
<li>shaberu neko 喋る猫 
Cat [that] speaks. 
(a.k.a.) 
Speaking cat.</li>
<li>shinda 死んだ 
Died.</li>
<ul>
<li>Past tense of:</li>
<li>shinu 死ぬ 
To die.</li>
</ul>
<li>shinda neko 死んだ猫 
Cat [that] died. 
(a.k.a.) 
Dead cat.</li>
</ul>
 
You might wanna read about <a></a> 
<h3>
Prepositional Phrases</h3>
English adjectives introduced by prepositions like "with," "in," "on," etc. are said in other ways, since those prepositions don't exist in Japanese. 
 
The equivalent of a simple English preposition is usually a whole clause in Japanese: 
<ul>
<li>kuruma no naka ni iru neko 車の中にいる猫 
The cat [that] is inside of the car.</li>
<li>beddo no ue ni aru <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/02/dakimakura-meaning.html">dakimakura</a> ベッドの上にある抱きまくら 
The hug pillow [that] is atop of the bed.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="past-adjectives">
Past Adjectives</h3>
Japanese also has a fundamental difference from English about the past tense. In English, we need to shuffle words around into a relative clause to say something was in a certain way in the past. In Japanese, we literally conjugate inflect the adjective and keep it exactly where it was before: 
<ul>
<li>hayai kuruma 速い車 
Fast car.</li>
<li>hayakatta kuruma 速かった車 
Car [that] was fast.</li>
<li>kimyou na bouken 奇妙な冒険 
Bizarre adventure.</li>
<li>kimyou datta bouken 奇妙だった冒険 
Adventure [that] was bizarre.</li>
<li>futsuu no koukousei 普通の高校生 
Normal student.</li>
<li>futsuu datta koukousei 普通だった高校生 
Student [that] was normal.</li>
</ul>
 
Although this can look like it's a bit weird of first, try to imagine the word "crash," and "crashed." Now think of "bizarre," and "bizarred." Well, bizarred isn't a word. But in Japanese in the example above it's like you said a "bizarred adventure." An adventure that was bizarre. 
<h3 id="negative-adjectives">
Negative Adjectives</h3>
In Japanese, the same thing happens with negative adjectives: we just inflect the adjectives instead of doing something more complicated with it. You can imagine the Japanese language is pretty lazy when it comes to this stuff. Or maybe Latin languages just over-complicate too much. 
<ul>
<li>hayakunai kuruma 速くない車 
Car [that] is not fast. 
Non-fast car.</li>
<li>kimyou denai bouken 奇妙でない冒険 
Adventure [that] is not bizarre. 
Non-bizarre adventure.</li>
<li>futsuu denai koukousei 普通でない高校生 
High-school student [that] is not normal. 
Non-normal high-school student. 
Abnormal high-school student.</li>
</ul>
 
Since all negative inflections in Japanese are done by adding the <a></a>-nai. 
 
For example, you can make a negative past by inflecting the -nai into its past form -nakatta: 
<ul>
<li>hayakunakatta kuruma 速くなかった車 
The cat [that] was not fast.</li>
</ul>
 
And colloquialisms are also shared: 
<ul>
<li>hayee kuruma 速ぇ車 
Fast car.</li>
<li>hayakunee kuruma 速く<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/nai-meaning-japanese.html#nee-colloquialism">ねぇ</a>車 
 Non-fast car. 
Fastn't car.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="kinds-of-japanese-adjectives">
Kinds of Japanese Adjectives</h2>
Now you might have noticed already that there's something fishy going on. This article is talking about adjectives. Words of the adjective kind. But some of those words in Japanese get an inflection, others get a na な particle, others have a no の particle What's up with that? Why they vary? 
 
Well. It just happens that the Japanese language doesn't have one, but two different types of adjectives! 
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/10/i-adjectives.html">The i-adjectives</a>. 
Adjectives that end in -i ～い. 
True adjectives: strong, independent adjectives who don't need no particle.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/11/na-adjectives.html">The na-adjectives</a>. 
Adjectives that take the na な particle. 
This particle is actually the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/desu-deshita-janai-meaning.html">da だ copula</a>'s lesser known cousin.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/11/no-adjectives.html">The no-adjectives</a>. 
Not really adjectives, mostly nouns turned into adjectives by the genitive case marking particle no の. 
This no の particle is sometimes the da だ copula's estranged and thrice removed aunt.</li>
</ol>
 
These two three different types of adjectives clearly work differently and are used for different things. I won't go in detail here, because you can click the links above and go read about each kind in detail in their own article. 
 
What I'll do is keep talking about properties all these adjectives have in common in Japanese. Like the fact they all come before nouns. 
 
<h3 id="varying-kinds-of-same-adjective">
Varying Kinds of Same Adjective</h3>
Sometimes, a single adjective can be found as different kinds of adjectives. 
 
For example, various words for <a></a>i-adjective and no-adjective variants: 
<ul>
<li>shiroi bara 白いバラ 
shiro no bara 白のバラ 
White rose.</li>
</ul>
 
In the case of colors, generally the i-adjective is used, it's more mundane, I guess. The no-adjective version is often preferred for titles (of movies, etc.) and names. 
 
A couple of words have historically diverged into i-adjective and na-adjective variants: 
<ul>
<li>chiisai 小さい 
chiisana 小さな 
Little.</li>
<li>ookii 大きい 
ookina 大きな 
Big.</li>
</ul>
 
In this case, probably sometime along Japanese's history, there was the ooki and chiisa <a></a>ooki naru ki 大きなる木, "tree [that] be big," which is where you get na-adjectives from, while someone else was just adding the ~i ～い morpheme to it. 
 
Anyways, both variants of these two words really mean the same thing. The main difference is that chiisana and ookina are only used before nouns. They can't be used in the predicative. 
 
That is, normally if you remove the na of a na-adjective you get a stand-alone word, but you can't do that with chiisana and ookina because chiisa and ooki aren't words. Only chiisana, chiisai, ookina, and ookii are words. 
 
Besides that, it's up to usage. Sometimes ookii is used more than ookina and vice-versa. 
<h2 id="predicative-adjectives">
Predicative Adjectives</h2>
So far we've talked about attributive adjectives: adjectives that attribute nouns by coming before them. Predicative adjectives, while not as interesting, are important to mention too. They're adjectives that are part of a subject's predicate. 
 
In Japanese, we mark the subject of a phrase by adding the ga が particle after it. And anything that's not the subject is the predicate. So: 
<ul>
<li>neko ga kawaii 猫が可愛い 
Cats [are] cute.</li>
<li>ore ga futsuu 俺が普通 
I [am] normal.</li>
</ul>
 
In the predicative form, no の and na な adjectives don't have their no and na's. Ironic, I know. So futsuu no becomes just futsuu. Likewise, kimyou na would become just kimyou. 
<h3 id="adding-da-copula">
Adding Da だ Copula</h3>
Now you may have noticed we got these implicit words "[are]" and "[am]" up there. That's because those are the English copula. And the Japanese copula is da だ, or desu です, and that copula isn't part of the phrases above. 
 
This is normal. In Japanese the copula is frequently omitted. So much that deliberately adding the casual copula may sound assertive. 
<ul>
<li>ore ga futsuu da 俺が普通だ 
I am normal. 
(ノ°Д°）ノ︵ ┻━┻</li>
</ul>
 
The above is alright, because futsuu is a no-adjective. With an i-adjective, though, it's grammatically incorrect to add the da だ directly after them. Because of reasons. 
 
Mainly because it's wrong to add da だ after something that's not a noun. The no-adjectives are nouns. The na-adjectives are nouns glued to the na attributive copula. The i-adjectives are not nouns, they are "true" adjectives. So that won't do. 
 
That means you need to turn the i-adjective into a noun by adding a no の particle to it, or the contraction of that particle contraction, n ん. 
<ul>
<li>neko ga kawaii no da 猫が可愛いのだ 
neko ga kawaii-n-da 猫が可愛いんだ 
Cats are cute. 
(WHO DARES DISAGREE?!??!!? HUH??!?!?)</li>
</ul>
 
To make matters more complicated, or less complicated. The above rule doesn't apply to desu です. Because that's a polite copula. So someone thought it should be an exception or something. Anyways. You can put desu right after i-adjectives. 
<ul>
<li>neko ga kawaii desu 猫が可愛いです 
Cats are cute. (politely.)</li>
</ul>
 
And you can put no の and n ん between them too if you want. It sounds assertive, too, probably because it sounds similar to no-da and n-da. 
<ul>
<li>neko ga kawaii no desu 猫が可愛いのです 
neko ga kawaii-n-desu 猫が可愛いんです 
Cats are cute. (I firmly and politely assert my ideology.)</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="adding-wa-particle">
Adding Wa は Particle</h3>
Another thing to note about predicative adjectives is that Japanese generally prefers to use topics rather than subjects. In practice, this means the wa は topic-marking particle tends to be used instead of the ga が subject-marking particle. 
<ul>
<li>neko wa kawaii 猫は可愛い 
Cats [are] cute.</li>
</ul>
 
Obviously, wa and ga are the same thing, except when they are not. Which is a lot of times. 
 
The most obvious case is when you have both wa and ga in the same sentence. For example: 
<ul>
<li>mimi ga nagai 耳が長い 
mimi wa nagai 耳は長い 
Ears [are] long.</li>
<ul>
<li>The translation is identical here.</li>
</ul>
<li>erufu wa mimi ga nagai エルフは耳が長い 
As for elves, ears [are] long. 
Elves [have] long ears.</li>
<ul>
<li>Here, we talk about the topic, Elves, and comment about how the ears are long.</li>
<li>If we switched particles, we'd get this:</li>
</ul>
<li>mimi wa erufu ga nagai 耳はエルフが長い 
As for ears, elves are long.</li>
<ul>
<li>This doesn't make sense.</li>
<li>Did you mean...</li>
</ul>
<li>mimi wa erufu no hou ga nagai 耳はエルフの方が長い 
As for ears, the side of the elves [is] longer. 
(we use hou 方 when we're comparing the elves' side with the humans' side, etc. It essentially means this:) 
As for ears, the elves' [are] longer.</li>
</ul>
 
And you could also say: 
<ul>
<li>erufu no mimi wa nagai エルフの耳は長い 
As for the ears of elves: long. 
Elves' ears are long.</li>
</ul>
 
Another intriguing case is with the na-adjectives suki 好き and kirai 嫌い. If I may add: kirai 嫌い is not an i-adjective. It comes from the verb kirau 嫌う. And suki from suku 好く. They're na-adjectives. 
 
Anyway, whenever you say something is suki or kirai, the English translation becomes a verb, "to like" or "to dislike," but the Japanese is merely describing a thing. 
<ul>
<li>nezumi ga kirai ネズミが嫌い 
Rats [are] disliked. 
I HATE RATS@!#!#@#@3213</li>
</ul>
 
These adjectives are often used with the ga particle because the implicit topic here is "I." See: 
<ul>
<li>watashi wa nezumi ga kirai 私はネズミが嫌い 
As for me, rats [are] disliked. 
I hate rats.</li>
<li>neko wa nezumi ga kirai 猫はネズミが嫌い 
As for cats, rats [are] disliked. 
Cats hate rats.</li>
</ul>
 
On the other hand, wa は can also be used to say something is liked or hated, but it becomes vastly more ambiguous. 
<ul>
<li>neko wa suki 猫は好き 
As for cats, liked.</li>
</ul><ol>
<li>I, or someone else, doesn't like a bunch of animals, but cats, specifically, those are liked, yes.</li>
<li>A bunch of animals don't like something, but cats, specifically, yes, that something is liked to them.</li>
</ol>

The exact meaning of the phrase ends up depending a lot on the context. 
<h2 id="adjectives-from-nouns">
Adjectives from Nouns</h2>
In Japanese, adjectives can be created from nouns by adding the no particle. These are the so-called no-adjectives. 
 
The most famous case is turning nouns into possessives: 
<ul>
<li>kare 彼 
He.</li>
<li>kare no 彼の 
His.</li>
<li>kare no kuruma 彼の車 
His car.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Zeruda ゼルダ 
Zelda. (<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/katakanization-meaning.html">katakanization</a>.)</li>
<li>Zeruda no ゼルダの 
Zelda's.</li>
<li>Zeruda no Densetsu ゼルダの伝説 
The Legend of Zelda.</li>
</ul>
 
But nouns may also be turned into adjectives that aren't possessives: 
<ul>
<li>densetsu 伝説 
Legend.</li>
<li>densetsu no 伝説の 
Of the legend. 
Legendary.</li>
<li>Densetsu no Yamada Tae 伝説の山田たえ 
The Legendary Yamada Tae.</li>
</ul>
 
Appositives: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/04/otouto-meaning.html">otouto</a> no sasuke ga... 弟のサスケが… 
Sasuke, the little brother, [is]...</li>
</ul>
 
And a lot of other stuff. Just see the article on <a></a> 
<h2 id="adverbs-from-adjectives">
Adverbs from Adjectives</h2>
In English, we sometimes turn adjectives into adverbs, so that they don't modify nouns anymore and instead modify verbs. In Japanese we can do that too, of course. 
 
With i-adjectives that's done by inflecting the adjective into -ku ～く. With na and no adjectives it's done by replacing the attributive copula with the adverbial copula ni に. 
<ul>
<li>hayaku hashiru 速く走る 
To run fast.</li>
<ul>
<li>Fast modifies "to run."</li>
</ul>
<li>kawaiku mieru 可愛く見える 
To look cute.</li>
<ul>
<li>Cute modifies "to look."</li>
</ul>
<li>futsuu ni ikiru 普通に生きる 
To live normally.</li>
<ul>
<li>Normally modifies "to live."</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>shoujiki na kotae 正直な答え 
Honest answer.</li>
<li>shoujiki ni kotaeru 正直に答える 
To answer honestly.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="te-forms">
Te-Forms</h2>
The te-forms of Japanese adjectives allow them to connect to each other. Which is really a complicated way of saying you can say two adjectives in sequence instead of just one. 
 
The te-form inflection of i-adjectives is -kute ～くて. For no and na-adjectives, the attributive copula is replaced by the te-form of the da だ copula, which is de で. 
<ul>
<li>chiisakute kawaii nezumi 小さくて可愛いネズミ 
A small and cute mouse.</li>
<li>kawaikute chiisai nezumi 可愛くて小さいネズミ 
A cute and small mouse.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>heibon de futsuu no koukousei 平凡で普通の高校生 
An ordinary and normal high-school student.</li>
<li>futsuu de heibon no koukousei 普通で平凡の高校生 
A normal and ordinary high-school student.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kimyou de ayashii bouken 奇妙で怪しい冒険 
A bizarre and suspicious adventure.</li>
<li>ayashikute kimyou na bouken 怪しくて奇妙な冒険 
A suspicious and bizarre adventure.</li>
</ul>
 
Note above that when two adjectives are connected by te-form, only the first adjective gets to be in te-form, the second one is unchanged. 
 
In particular, na and no adjectives don't get their na and no's when they're in the predicative form, only when they're attributive for some noun. 
<ul>
<li>ore ga futsuu de heibon 俺が普通で平凡 
ore ga futsuu de heibon da 俺が普通で平凡だ 
I'm normal and ordinary.</li>
<ul>
<li>Since heibon is predicative for ore, we don't say heibon no.</li>
</ul>
<li>ore ga {futsuu de heibon no koukousei} 俺が普通で平凡の高校生 
I'm a {normal and ordinary high-school student.}</li>
<ul>
<li>Since heibon is attributive for koukousei, we say heibon no.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Lastly, the order of adjectives in the te-form matters sometimes. Usually, it's implied the first adjective causes the second. So two adjectives tend to be said in the same order if there's a strong causal relationship between them: 
<ul>
<li>chiisakute kawaii 小さくて可愛い 
Small and cute.</li>
<ul>
<li>Because it's small, it's cute.</li>
<li>This makes sense, because, by first observing something is small, you then conclude it's cute.</li>
</ul>
<li>kawaikute chiisai 可愛くて小さい 
Cute and small.</li>
<ul>
<li>Because it's cute, it's small.</li>
<li>This doesn't make as much sense. Because things don't become small after they become cute. It's the other way around!</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
Of course. The implication isn't always there. Sometimes "small and cute" or "cute and small" don't really have any difference. It's just two things in parallel and one doesn't cause or depend on the other.

Like (probably) every other language in the world, the Japanese language also has adjectives. But how do the Japanese adjectives work? How do you tell an adjective from another word? How is the sentence structure with adjectives involved? In this article, I'll explain a little about them.An adjective is something that qualifies, specifies, describes, details, etc. something else. Adjectives can be words or phrases. And the "something else" that they describe is a noun.For example, say you have the word "car." That's a noun.Now say there's a bunch of cars out there and you want to specify which car exactly you're talking about. You gotta describe it. With an adjective:But sometimes a single word isn't enough to describe the noun. You need more! You need a whole phrase:And sometimes we describe nouns by an action performed by the noun or upon the noun. In either case, the noun is subject of a clause, a subordinate adjective clause.Disregarding the specifics, adjectives generally boil down to two kinds: lone words and phrases or clauses. One is obviously simpler than the other.The clauses are also sometimes called "relative clauses." And words like "that," "who," etc. are sometimes called "relative pronouns."There's also more specific kinds worth nothing about:Words like "my," "your," "his," "Jack's," etc. They're called "possessive adjectives," because they describe something is possessed by someone or something else.Phrases like "cold," "blue," where you have a word modifying the adjective work.Appositives like "Kamina,, believes in me" where you have a description right after the noun, without a preposition. (you could say "Kamina,my brother, believes in me," but that's different.)The way adjectives work in Japanese is pretty different to how it works in English. They share a little tiny bit of similarity, and then it's all different.First off, ignoring technicalities, Japanese adjectives pretty much always come before the noun. Just like English:Intensifiers and other adverbs also come right before the adjective, just like in English:Sometimes the translation doesn't match literally, but so long it's intense the meaning is conveyed.The problem is, Japanese adjectives pretty, pretty,muchcome before the noun. Even when they don't in English.Specifically, adjective phrases and relative clauses that would come after the noun in English come before the noun in Japanese:Another pretty big difference is that Japanese literally doesn't have prepositions. That's right: no prepositions. None of "that," "who," "of," etc. Japanese has postpositions, these come after, not before, they're called "particles," by the way. But prepositions? That western backwards stuff? Nope!This can be seen by the fact that there's really nothing connecting those relative clauses to the nouns.If you have a clause, those things that end in a verb in Japanese, and you add a noun after the verb, it instantly turns into an adjective clause. Just like that:You might wanna read about <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/07/verbs-japanese-grammar.html">how verbs work in Japanese</a> if you haven't already to understand this better.English adjectives introduced by prepositions like "with," "in," "on," etc. are said in other ways, since those prepositions don't exist in Japanese.The equivalent of a simple English preposition is usually a whole clause in Japanese:Japanese also has a fundamental difference from English about the past tense. In English, we need to shuffle words around into a relative clause to say something was in a certain way in the past. In Japanese, we literallyinflect the adjective and keep it exactly where it was before:Although this can look like it's a bit weird of first, try to imagine the word "crash," and "crashed." Now think of "bizarre," and "bizarred." Well, bizarred isn't a word. But in Japanese in the example above it's like you said a "bizarred adventure." An adventure that was bizarre.In Japanese, the same thing happens with negative adjectives: we just inflect the adjectives instead of doing something more complicated with it. You can imagine the Japanese language is pretty lazy when it comes to this stuff. Or maybe Latin languages just over-complicate too much.Since all negative inflections in Japanese are done by adding the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/nai-meaning-japanese.html">-nai ～ない auxiliary adjective suffix</a> , they all can be inflected further by inflecting theFor example, you can make a negative past by inflecting theinto its past formAnd colloquialisms are also shared:Now you might have noticed already that there's something fishy going on. This article is talking about adjectives. Words of the adjective kind. But some of those words in Japanese get an inflection, others get aな particle, others have aの particle What's up with that? Why they vary?Well. It just happens that the Japanese language doesn't have one, butdifferent types of adjectives!Thesethree different types of adjectives clearly work differently and are used for different things. I won't go in detail here, because you can click the links above and go read about each kind in detail in their own article.What I'll do is keep talking about properties all these adjectives have in common in Japanese. Like the fact they all come before nouns.Sometimes, a single adjective can be found as different kinds of adjectives.For example, various words for <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/names-of-colors-in-japanese.html">colors</a> have both-adjective and-adjective variants:In the case of colors, generally the-adjective is used, it's more mundane, I guess. The-adjective version is often preferred for titles (of movies, etc.) and names.A couple of words have historically diverged into-adjective and-adjective variants:In this case, probably sometime along Japanese's history, there was theand <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/morphemes.html">morphemes</a> , then someone was saying大き木, "tree [that]big," which is where you get-adjectives from, while someone else was just adding the～い morpheme to it.Anyways, both variants of these two words really mean the same thing. The main difference is thatandare only used before nouns. They can't be used in the predicative.That is, normally if you remove theof a-adjective you get a stand-alone word, but you can't do that withandbecauseandaren't words. Only, andare words.Besides that, it's up to usage. Sometimesis used more thanand vice-versa.So far we've talked about attributive adjectives: adjectives that attribute nouns by coming before them. Predicative adjectives, while not as interesting, are important to mention too. They're adjectives that are part of a subject's predicate.In Japanese, we mark the subject of a phrase by adding theが particle after it. And anything that's not the subject is the predicate. So:In the predicative form,の andな adjectives don't have theirand's. Ironic, I know. Sobecomes just. Likewise,would become justNow you may have noticed we got these implicit words "[are]" and "[am]" up there. That's because those are the English copula. And the Japanese copula isだ, orです, and that copula isn't part of the phrases above.This is normal. In Japanese the copula is frequently omitted. So much that deliberately adding the casual copula may sound assertive.The above is alright, becauseis a-adjective. With an-adjective, though, it's grammatically incorrect to add theだ directly after them. Because of reasons.Mainly because it's wrong to addだ after something that's not a noun. The-adjectives are nouns. The-adjectives are nouns glued to theattributive copula. The-adjectives are not nouns, they are "true" adjectives. So that won't do.That means you need to turn the-adjective into a noun by adding aの particle to it, or the contraction of that particle contraction,ん.To make matters more complicated, or less complicated. The above rule doesn't apply toです. Because that's a polite copula. So someone thought it should be an exception or something. Anyways. You can putright after-adjectives.And you can putの andん between them too if you want. It sounds assertive, too, probably because it sounds similar toandAnother thing to note about predicative adjectives is that Japanese generally prefers to use topics rather than subjects. In practice, this means theは topic-marking particle tends to be used instead of theが subject-marking particle.Obviously,andare the same thing, except when they are not. Which is a lot of times.The most obvious case is when you have bothandin the same sentence. For example:And you could also say:Another intriguing case is with the-adjectives好き and嫌い. If I may add:嫌い is not an-adjective. It comes from the verb嫌う. Andfrom好く. They're-adjectives.Anyway, whenever you say something isor, the English translation becomes a verb, "to like" or "to dislike," but the Japanese is merely describing a thing.These adjectives are often used with theparticle because the implicit topic here is "I." See:On the other hand,は can also be used to say something is liked or hated, but it becomes vastly more ambiguous.The exact meaning of the phrase ends up depending a lot on the context.In Japanese, adjectives can be created from nouns by adding the no particle. These are the so-called-adjectives.The most famous case is turning nouns into possessives:But nouns may also be turned into adjectives that aren't possessives:Appositives:And a lot of other stuff. Just see the article on <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2018/11/no-adjectives.html">no-adjectives</a> for more examples.In English, we sometimes turn adjectives into adverbs, so that they don't modify nouns anymore and instead modify verbs. In Japanese we can do that too, of course.With-adjectives that's done by inflecting the adjective into～く. Withandadjectives it's done by replacing the attributive copula with the adverbial copulaに.The-forms of Japanese adjectives allow them to connect to each other. Which is really a complicated way of saying you can say two adjectives in sequence instead of just one.The-form inflection of-adjectives is～くて. Forand-adjectives, the attributive copula is replaced by the-form of theだ copula, which isで.Note above that when two adjectives are connected by-form, only the first adjective gets to be in-form, the second one is unchanged.In particular,andadjectives don't get theirand's when they're in the predicative form, only when they're attributive for some noun.Lastly, the order of adjectives in the-form matters sometimes. Usually, it's implied the first adjective causes the second. So two adjectives tend to be said in the same order if there's a strong causal relationship between them:Of course. The implication isn't always there. Sometimes "small and cute" or "cute and small" don't really have any difference. It's just two things in parallel and one doesn't cause or depend on the other.</div>

Japanese Adjectives

What's an Adjective? An adjective is something that qualifies, specifies, describes, details, etc. something else. Adjectives can b...

Japanese Christmas Words

<div> 
 
 
<a name="more"></a><h2 id="christmas-in-japanese">
Christmas in Japanese</h2>
The word Christmas doesn't really get translated to Japanese, it gets <a></a><a></a><a></a><a></a> 
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu クリスマス 
Christmas.</li>
<li>X-masu Xマス 
ekkusu-masu エックスマス 
Xmas.</li>
</ul>
 
Note that, in a number of abbreviations and derived words, Christmas becomes just kuri クリ in Japanese. 
 
Just like in America (and probably the rest of the world, too), in Japanese Christmas is celebrated every year 25th of December. Below is <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>jyuu-ni-gatsu ni-jyuu-go-nichi １２月２５日 
<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/months-in-japanese.html">Month 12 (December)</a>, day 25.</li>
</ul>
 
The same is true for that day just before Christmas. 
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu ibu クリスマス・イヴ 
Christmas Eve.</li>
<li>jyuu-ni-gatsu ni-jyuu-yon-nichi １２月２４日 
jyuu-ni-gatsu ni-jyuu-yokka １２月２４日 
Month 12 (December), day 24.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Time & Planning</h3>
<ul>
<li>yotei 予定 
Plans.</li>
<li>yotei ga nai 予定がない 
To not have plans (for Christmas).</li>
<li>jikan to basho 時間と場所 
Time and place.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>jiki 時期 
Time. Season. (Christmas)</li>
<li>yuuru ユール 
Yule.</li>
<li>chigai 近い 
Near.</li>
<li>kurisumasu ga chikai クリスマスが近い 
Christmas is near.</li>
<li>kurisumasu ga chikadzuku クリスマスが近づく 
Christmas approaches ("coming near").</li>
<li>kurisumasu ga chikadzuiteiru クリスマスが近づいている 
Christmas is approaching.</li>
<li>kurisumasu ga chikadzuitekita クリスマスが近づいてきた 
Christmas is coming near.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu ga hajimaru クリスマスが始まる 
Christmas begins.</li>
<li>kurisumasu ga owaru クリスマスが終わる 
Christmas ends</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Spending Christmas</h3>
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu wo sugosu クリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas. To spend Christmas (doing).</li>
<li>kurisumasu wo sugoshita クリスマスを過ごした 
To have passed Christmas. To have spent Christmas (doing).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>isshoni kurisumasu wo sugosu 一緒にクリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas together.</li>
<li>tomodachi to kurisumasu wo sugosu 友達とクリスマスを過ごす 
yuujin to kurisumasu wo sugosu 友人とクリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas with your friends </li>
<li>koibito to kurisumasu wo sugosu 恋人とクリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas together with your lover.</li>
<li>kareshi to kurisumasu wo sugosu 彼氏とクリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas with your boyfriend.</li>
<li>kanojo to kurisumasu wo sugosu 彼女とクリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas with your girlfriend.</li>
<li>kazoku to kurisumasu wo sugosu 家族とクリスマスを過ごす 
To pass Christmas with your family.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kuri-bocchi クリぼっち 
Lone Christmas. Spending it alone.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="merry-christmas">
Merry Christmas</h2>
To say merry Chrstimas in Japanese, you just say: 
<ul>
<li>merii kurisumasu メリークリスマス 
Merry Christmas</li>
<li>merikuri メリクリ 
(Abbreviated version, used in online messages, etc.)</li>
</ul>
 
There are Japanese words for "merry," "cheerful," like youki 陽気. So do people say youki kurisumasu 陽気クリスマス? No. They don't. It's merii kurisumasu メリークリスマス. 
 
It's not really about what it means. It's basically just Japanese people copying what they hear in Hollywood Christmas movies. (no, I'm not even joking. American movies disseminate Christmas culture far better than anything the church has ever done, just like anime does with Japan) 
<h2 id="happy-hanukkah">
Happy Hanukkah</h2>
Japanese people don't know about Hanukkah. Period. 
 
There aren't Home Alone movies about Hanukkah. No movies = no fame. If your holidays are worth caring about you need a couple of worldwide blockbusters about it. Sure there has to be one person at least who celebrates Hanukkah in Japan, but, generally, people don't know about it, so it's just Christmas. 
 
If you do encounter the phrase below, it'll be in a Japanese article talking about fads in America. 
<ul>
<li>happii hanuka ハッピーハヌカ 
Happy Hanukkah.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="happy-holidays">
Happy Holidays</h2>
In America there's a weird trend of saying "happy holidays," because... because... I have no idea? It's some stupid phrase someone came up with. What if you commemorate something in July? Nobody says "happy holidays" in July. So what kind of chronological discrimination is this? 
 
Anyway the phrase below is actually used in Japanese (not with the same frequency as merry Christmas, though) 
<ul>
<li>happii horidee ハッピーホリデー 
Happy holiday. (preferred)</li>
<li>happii horideezu ハッピーホリデーズ 
Happy holidays.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-stuff">
Christmas Stuff</h2>
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu kyaroru クリスマスキャロル 
Christmas carol.</li>
<li>kurisumasu songu クリスマスソング 
Christmas song.</li>
<li>kurisumasu kaado クリスマスカード 
Christmas card.</li>
<li>kurisumasu paatyi クリスマスパーティ 
kuripa クリパ 
Christmas party.</li>
<li>kurisumasu konseeto クリスマスコンサート 
kurikon クリコン 
Christmas concert.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="jingle-bells">
Jingle Bells</h2>
The famous "jingle bells" song would be called jinguru beru ジングルベル in Japanese. Its actual name, ""one-horse open sleigh," would be wan hoosu opun surei ワンホース・オープン・スレイ. 
<h3>
Lyrics in Japanese</h3>
This is an English song. There's no such thing as lyrics in Japanese. The best you can get is the <a></a> 
 
For example, someone posted their katakana version of Jingle Bells in this Japanese page: <a></a> 
 
I say their because they literally just listened to the song and wrote down what they thought it sounded like. It's not like there's an official version of this thing. You can find a dozen different katakanizations of this song around the internet. 
<h2 id="santa-claus">
Santa</h2>
<ul>
<li>santa サンタ 
Santa.</li>
</ul>
 
Yep. Santa. 
<ul>
<li>santa kuroosu サンタクロース 
Santa Claus.</li>
</ul>
 
Sometimes called with the <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>santa-<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/07/kun-san-chan-sama-meaning.html#san">san</a> サンタさん 
Santa.</li>
</ul>
 
He lives in the: 
<ul>
<li>kita 北 
North. (<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/north-south-east-west-in-japanese.html">cardinal directions</a>)</li>
<li>hokkyoku 北極 
North pole. The Arctic.</li>
<li>hokkyoku de kurasu 北極で暮らす 
Living by the North Pole.</li>
</ul>
 
Where he has a: 
<ul>
<li>koujou 工場 
Factory. Workshop.</li>
</ul>
 
And employs: 
<ul>
<li>yousei 妖精 
Fairies. (a type of, at least)</li>
<li>erufu エルフ 
Elf. Elves.</li>
<li>kurisumasu erufu クリスマスエルフ 
Christmas elves.</li>
</ul>
 
And then he has a list of: 
<ul>
<li>iiko 良い子 
Good kids. (Nice kids.)</li>
<li>warui ko 悪い子 
Bad kids. (Naughty kids.)</li>
</ul>
 
Whom he gives: 
<ul>
<li>purezento プレゼント 
Presents.</li>
<li>sekitan 石炭 
Coal.</li>
</ul>
 
And let's not forget what he drives: 
<ul>
<li>sori ソリ 
Sled.</li>
<li>sora 空 
Sky.</li>
<li>sora tobu 空飛ぶ 
Sky-flying.</li>
<li>sora tobu sori 空飛ぶソリ 
Sky flying sled.</li>
</ul>
 
 
Whose flight is powered by: 
<ul>
<li>tonakai トナカイ 
Reindeer.</li>
<ul>
<li>This comes from the Ainu word tunakkay.</li>
<li>If you don't know what an Ainu is, go watch Golden Kamuy.</li>
<li>Another word for reindeer is...</li>
</ul>
<li>junroku 馴鹿 Literally: Tamed Deer.</li>
</ul>
 
 
And he enters in houses by the: 
<ul>
<li>entotsu 煙突 
Chimney.</li>
<li>entotsu kara hairu 煙突から入る 
Enter by the chimney. "Enter from the chimney."</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="santa-reindeer">
Reindeer</h2>
The names of the Santa Claus's reindeer in Japanese are as follows: 
<ol>
<li>dasshaa ダッシャー 
Dasher.</li>
<li>dansaa ダンサー 
Dancer.</li>
<li>puransaa プランサー 
Prancer.</li>
<li>vikusen <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/vu-kana-katakana-u-diacritic.html">ヴ</a>ィクセン 
Vixen.</li>
<li>kometto コメット 
Comet.</li>
<li>kyuupiddo キューピッド 
Cupid.</li>
<li>donnaa ダンナー 
Donner Dunder. Donder.</li>
<li>burisshen ブリッツェン 
Blitzen. Blixem. Blixen.</li>
<li>rudorufu ルドルフ 
Rudolph.</li>
</ol>
 
Other words and phrases: 
<ul>
<li>tonakai トナカイ (kanji: 馴鹿) 
Reindeer.</li>
<li>sora tobu sori wo hiku tonakai 空飛ぶソリを引くトナカイ 
Reindeer pulling sky-flying sled. 
The reindeer that pull the sky-flying sled.</li>
<li>aka hana no tonakai 赤鼻のトナカイ 
Red-nose reindeer. 
Red-nosed reindeer.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-food">
Food</h2>
The names of some traditional Christmas foods: 
<ul>
<li>shichimenshou 七面鳥 
Turkey.</li>
<li>furaido chikin フライドチキン 
Friend chiken.</li>
<li>kurisum—</li>
</ul>
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, what? 
 
Fried chicken? 
 
Since when is friend chicken a "traditional Christmas food"? Has the world of fast food capitalism and the world of Christmas capitalism collided so hard fast food chains are now traditional? What is going on here??? 
 
Well, you see, why do people eat a turkey in Christmas dinner? That's because... it's tradition. And what is Christmas? A tradition. A religious tradition. The Christmas dinner is a very literally a feast of the religious kind, at least it was, originally. A country that doesn't have a long history of Christian religious traditions, such as Japan, ends up eating whatever sounds good for the dinner. In Japan's case, it is, seriously, fried chicken. 
 
(Some articles on the subject: Smithsonian: <a></a><a></a> 
 
So yeah, they don't eat turkey. They eat fried chicken. 
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu keeki クリスマスケーキ 
Christmas cake. </li>
<li>kurisumasu pudhingu クリスマスプディング 
Christmas pudding.</li>
<li>reebukuuhen レープクーヘン 
Lebkuchen. (German treat)</li>
<li>panettoone パネトーネ 
Panettone. (Italian bread)</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-cake-woman">
Christmas Cake Woman</h2>
In Japan, the term "Christmas cake," or kurisumasu keeki クリスマスケーキ, may sometimes refer to an unmarried woman above "25 <a></a>ni-juu-go-sai ２５歳. 
 
This is because Christmas cakes are meant to be consumed by Christmas, which is day 25. This idiom implies a woman above 25 years old should have trouble marrying, as she's still "on the shelf" (unmarried) after the best date for purchase. 
 
This term isn't really related to Christmas, it's just a way of saying, but I figured it should be included here anyway. 
<h2 id="christmas-presents">
Presents</h2>
There are a couple of words for "present" in Japanese: 
<ul>
<li>purezento プレゼント 
Present.</li>
<li>gifuto ギフト 
Gift.</li>
<li>okurimono 贈り物 
Given thing.</li>
<li>omiyage お土産 
Souvenir. ("produce from earth")</li>
</ul>
 
They each have their differences and are used in different circumstances. In the case of Christmas, the word preferred comes from the English "present," purezento. 
<ul>
<li>kurisumasu purezento クリスマスプレゼント 
kuripure クリプレ 
Christmas present.</li>
<li>purezento bokkusu プレゼントボックス 
Present box. Gift box.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Giving & Receiving</h3>
There are a few ways to say you're "giving a present" in Japanese, or "receiving a present." First, let's start with the most basic verb: 
<ul>
<li>purezento suru プレゼントする 
To give a present. To "present." </li>
</ul>
 
The above only works because in Japanese the word purezento is also a verb (to present, to gift). The auxiliary suru means "to do," it does not mean "to give." 
 
Another way of saying it is using the verbs <a></a> 
<ul>
<li>purezento wo ageru プレゼントをあげる 
To give a present.</li>
<li>purezento wo kureru プレゼントをくれる 
To be given a present. (most of the time)</li>
<li>purezento wo morau プレゼントを貰う 
To take a present.</li>
</ul>
 
Because these are also auxiliary verbs, they can be combined with purezento suru: 
<ul>
<li>purezento shite ageru プレゼントしてあげる 
To present.</li>
<li>purezento shite kureru プレゼントしてくれる 
To be presented. (most of the time)</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Example Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li>purezento shite kurete, arigatou プレゼントしてくれて、ありがとう 
[For] presenting [me], thanks. 
(very unlikely to be said)</li>
<li>purezento arigatou プレゼントありがとう 
Thanks for the present. 
(more likely to be said)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kore, ageru yo これ、あげるよ 
This, [I'll] give [to you]. 
This is for you. *hands present*</li>
<li>purezento wa nani ga hoshii? プレゼントは何が欲しい？ 
What [do you] want for present?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kattekureta? 買ってくれた？ 
[You] bought [it] for [me]?</li>
<li>katteageru 買ってあげる 
[I'll] buy [it] for [you].</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Buying</h3>
<ul>
<li>yosan 予算 
Budget. "Expected amount." (to buy the present)</li>
<li>kachi 価値 
Value. Worth.</li>
<li>nedan 値段 
Price.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kau 買う 
To buy.</li>
<li>kattekuru 買ってくる 
To go buy and then come back.</li>
<li>kattekita 買ってきた 
To have bought and come back.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>en 円 
Yen. Anime money!</li>
<li>doru ドル 
Dollar.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Receiver</h3>
<ul>
<li>tomodachi 友達 
yuujn 友人 
Friend.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>koibito 恋人 
Lover.</li>
<li>kareshi 彼氏 
Boyfriend.</li>
<li>kanojo 彼女 
Girlfriend.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>okusama 奥様 
Wife.</li>
<li>dannasama 旦那様 
Husband.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Common Gifts</h3>
The words below are translated to plural, but <a></a>omocha) can be either singular (toy) or plural (toys). 
<h4>
Children & Hobbies</h4>
<ul>
<li>omocha おもちゃ 
Toys.</li>
<li>ningyou 人形 
Dolls.</li>
<li>geemu ゲーム 
Video-games.</li>
<li>hon 本 
Books.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kyarakutaa guzzu キャラクターグッズ 
"Character goods." Backpacks, etc. with anime characters.</li>
<li>dizzuni guzzu ヂッズニーグッズ 
Disney goods. (same as above, but Disney characters)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>jitensha 自転車 
Bicycle.</li>
<li>sanrinsha 三輪車 
Tricycle.</li>
<li>supootsu youhin スポーツ用品 
Sports goods.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Clothing</h4>
<ul>
<li>irui 衣類 
Clothes.</li>
<li>fasshon ファッション 
Fashion.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>baggu バッグ 
Bag.</li>
<li>saifu 財布 
Wallet.</li>
<li>fasshon komono ファッション小物 
Fashion accessories.</li>
<li>akusesarii アクセサリー 
Accessories.</li>
<li>ude tokei 腕時計 
Wristwatch.</li>
<li>kosume コスメ 
Cosmetics.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Other</h4>
<ul>
<li>pea gifuto ペアギフト 
Pair gift. 
A matching item, often given from boyfriend to girlfriend or vice-versa so that both of them wear as a pair.</li>
<li>yuumei burando 有名ブランド 
Famous brand (of clothing).</li>
<li>yuumei sutoa 有名ストア 
Famous store.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-tree">
Tree</h2>
The word for "tree" in Japanese is: 
<ul>
<li>ki 木 
Tree.</li>
</ul>
 
However, that's just a normal, everyday tree. The holiday tree is called something else, Englishier: 
<ul>
<li>tsurii ツリー 
Tree.</li>
<li>kurisumasu tsurii クリスマスツリー 
Christmas tree.</li>
</ul>
 
It also has some less common names, based on Christianity: 
<ul>
<li>chie no ki 知恵の樹 
Tree of knowledge (of good and evil).</li>
<li>seijuu 聖樹 
Holy tree.</li>
</ul>
 
Concerning the type of tree the Christmas tree is: 
<ul>
<li>jouryoku shokubutsu 常緑植物 
Evergreen plant. "Normally green planted thing."</li>
<li>shin'youjuu 針葉樹 
Conifer.</li>
<li>touhi-zoku トウヒ属 
Spruces family. Picea.</li>
<li>matsu-zoku マツ属 
Pines family. Pinus.</li>
<li>momi-zoku モミ属 
Firs family. Abies.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-decorations">
Decorations</h2>
The word for decoration in Japanese is: 
<ul>
<li>kazari 飾り 
Decoration. Decorations.</li>
</ul>
 
And it comes from a verb, so it has all these sibling words: 
<ul>
<li>kazaru 飾る 
To decorate.</li>
<li>kazari tsukeru 飾り付ける 
To decorate. "To attach decorations."</li>
<li>kazari tsuke 飾りつけ 
The act of decorating. The attachment of decorations.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Typical Ornaments</h3>
<ul>
<li>oonamento オーナメント 
Ornaments.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>tsurii toppu ツリートップ 
Tree-top. Treetopper.</li>
<li>hoshi 星 
Star.</li>
<li>tenshi 天使 
Angel.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>oonamento booru オーナメントボール 
Ornament ball. 
Christmas baubles.</li>
<li>gaarando ガーランド 
Garland.</li>
<li>mooru モール 
Tinsel.</li>
<li>ribon リボン 
Ribbon.</li>
<li>beru ベル 
Bell.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>ringo リンゴ (林檎) 
Apple.</li>
<li>kashirui 菓子類 
Pastries.</li>
<li>kyandhi kein キャンディケイン 
Candy cane.</li>
<li>men 綿 
Cotton. (as fake snow)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>souroku ろうそく (蝋燭) 
Candles.</li>
<li>tenshoku 電飾 
Decorative illumination.</li>
<li>irumineeshon raito イルミネーションライト 
"Illumination light." (yes, really) 
Lights of [decorative] illumination. Colored lights.</li>
<li>kurisumasu irumineeshon クリスマスイルミネーション 
Christmas illumination.</li>
</ul>
 
<h2 id="christmas-weather">
Weather</h2>
Japan is in the northern hemisphere, therefore, in December, when it's Christmas, it is: 
<ul>
<li>fuyu 冬 
<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/natsu-haru-fuyu-aki-meaning.html">Winter</a>.</li>
</ul>
 
And the temperature is: 
<ul>
<li>samui 寒い 
tsumetai 冷たい 
Cold.</li>
</ul>
 
That is, the the weather is samui, while everything you touch is tsumetai. (<a></a>soto wa samui 外は寒い, but "the wind is cold," can be either kaze wa tsumetai 風は冷たい or kaze wa samui 風は寒い. 
 
When it's cold, it's normal to: 
<ul>
<li>furueru 震える 
To tremble (with cold). To quiver.</li>
<li>kaze wo hiku 風邪を引く 
To catch a cold.</li>
</ul>
 
So it's better to get something: 
<ul>
<li>atatakai 暖かいatatakai 温かい 
Warm. (<a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/08/atsui-atatakai-samui-tsumetai-difference.html">暖かい vs. 温かい</a>)</li>
<li>atatakai ie 暖かい家 
Warm house. (not cold like outside)</li>
<li>atatakai fuku 暖かい服 
Warm clothes.</li>
<li>atatakai ocha 温かいお茶 
Warm tea.</li>
<li>atatakai ofuro 温かいお風呂 
Warm bath.</li>
<li>atatakai kazoku 温かい家族 
Warm family.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-snow">
Snow</h2>
Since it's cold during Christmas, there's a lot of: 
<ul>
<li>yuki 雪 
sunoo スノー 
Snow.</li>
</ul>
 
Which is often called: 
<ul>
<li>shiroi 白い 
White.</li>
<li>masshiro 真っ白 
Pure white.</li>
<li>shiroi, tsumetai yuki 白い冷たい雪 
White, cold snow.</li>
<li>shirokute tsumetai yuki 白くて冷たい雪 
White cold snow.</li>
<li>masshiro na yuki 真っ白な雪 
Pure white snow.</li>
<li>masshiro de tsumetai yuki 真っ白で冷たい雪 
Cold snow that's purely white.</li>
</ul>
 
This snow often come from the skies, so: 
<ul>
<li>furu 降る 
To rain.</li>
<li>yuki ga furu 雪が降る 
The snow rains. (It's raining snow).</li>
</ul>
 
Some more snowy terms: 
<ul>
<li>masshiro na yuki no youni 真っ白な雪のように 
Like pure white snow. (someone's skin, a character's hair, etc.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>yukimichi 雪道 
Snow-covered road. "Snow road."</li>
<li>yukigumo 雪雲 
Snow cloud.</li>
<li>seppen 雪片 
sunoo fureeku スノーフレーク 
Snow flake.</li>
<li>sunoo buranketto スノーブランケット 
Snow blanket.</li>
<li>kousetsu 降雪 
Snow fall. "Fall snow."</li>
<li>fubuki 吹雪 
Snow storm. "Spew snow." 
(also a certain One Punch Man character's name)</li>
<li>hatsuyuki 初雪 
"First snow" of the season.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>yukidama 雪玉 
Snowball.</li>
<li>yukinage 雪投げ 
Snowball fight. "Throwing snow."</li>
<li>marui 丸い 
Round. Ball-like.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
White Christmas & Green Christmas</h3>
When it's Christmas Eve or Christmas and it snows it's called a: 
<ul>
<li>howaito kurisumasu ホワイトクリスマス 
White Christmas.</li>
</ul>
 
And when it does not snow it's called a: 
<ul>
<li>guriin kurisumasu グリーンクリスマス 
midori no kurisumasu 緑のクリスマス 
Green Christmas.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-snowman">
Snowman</h2>
<ul>
<li>yukidaruma 雪だるま 
sunooman スノーマン 
Snowman.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>boushi 帽子 
Cap. Hat.</li>
<li>mafuraa マフラー 
Muffler. Scarf.</li>
<li>me 目 
Eyes.</li>
<li>petto botoru no kyappu ペットボトルのキャップ 
Pet bottle's cap.</li>
<li>hana 鼻 
Nose.</li>
<li>ninjin ニンジン 
Carrot.</li>
<li>kuchi 口 
Mouth.</li>
<li>botan ボタン 
Buttons.</li>
<li>ishikoro 石ころ 
Pebbles.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="christmas-religion">
Religion</h2>
As we all know (I think?), Christmas is sort of based on the birth of: 
<ul>
<li>iesu kurisuto イエス・キリスト 
Jesus Christ.</li>
</ul>
 
The central idea behind: 
<ul>
<li>kirisuto-kyou キリスト教 
Christianity</li>
</ul>
 
Which is a: 
<ul>
<li>shuukyou 宗教 
Religion.</li>
<li>kyoukai 教会 
Church. Congregation.</li>
</ul>
 
So much that a synonym for "Christmas" in Japanese is: 
<ul>
<li>seitansai 聖誕祭 
"Saint," seijin 聖人 
"Birth," tanjou 誕生 
"Festival," matsuri 祭</li>
</ul>
 
(which is kind of ironic, because seitan pronounced like "Satan," so the word is kind of also "Satan festival." By the way, Satan is just satan サタン in Japanese, the sa is pronounced like sardine.) 
 
By the way, other holy words for Christmas are: 
<ul>
<li>seiya 聖夜 
Holy night. Christmas eve.</li>
<li>seika 聖菓 
Holy pastry. Christmas cake.</li>
<li>seijuu 聖樹 
Holy tree. Christmas tree.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Christianity in Japan</h3>
Japan isn't a particularly Christian country, but they do celebrate Christmas. Because everybody in the world celebrates Christmas. Not because they are christian or because they care about Christ, of course not. 
 
They celebrate it because it's fun. 
 
And there is food. 
 
And you get presents. 
 
So, in Japan, as well as in many other non-Christian countries, even though they do some Christmas stuff in Christmas, people don't really associate the event and the holidays with Christianity. Because, I mean, who could? What does a fat old man in red clothes breaking into homes going after kids have to do with the bible? I don't really see a connection here. 
 
In practice, this means that, while there's a lot of Christians in Christian countries celebrating the birth of Christ in Christmas, there isn't as many in Japan, so you don't really get to see Christian stuff in Christmas with the same frequency you would see the United States or, for example, in Brazil, where I'm from. 
 
(WhyChristmas has a page about <a></a> 
 
 
I'm just saying this in case you're wondering why, even though there are so many anime with Christmas episodes, you never see anything Christian related in those episodes, you only see the trees, and decorations, and food, and cake eating, and presents, etc. This would be the why.

Since it's almost Christmas, I figured I should make a list of Japanese words related to the holidays, including some assorted vocabulary and phrases, too.The word Christmas doesn't really get translated to Japanese, it gets <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/loan-words.html">loaned to Japanese</a> . That means it's the same word, but <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/katakanization-meaning.html">katakanized</a> , written with <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/05/japanese-writing-system.html">the Japanese alphabet</a> in <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/why-japanese-cant-english.html">a way the Japanese can pronounce</a> Note that, in a number of abbreviations and derived words, Christmas becomes justクリ in Japanese.Just like in America (and probably the rest of the world, too), in Japanese Christmas is celebrated every year 25th of December. Below is <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/03/dates-japanese-date-format.html">how that date is written in Japanese</a> The same is true for that day just before Christmas.To say merry Chrstimas in Japanese, you just say:There are Japanese words for "merry," "cheerful," like陽気. So do people say陽気クリスマス? No. They don't. It'sメリークリスマス.It's not really about what it means. It's basically just Japanese people copying what they hear in Hollywood Christmas movies. (no, I'm not even joking. American movies disseminate Christmas culture far better than anything the church has ever done, just like anime does with Japan)Japanese people don't know about Hanukkah. Period.There aren't Home Alone movies about Hanukkah. No movies = no fame. If your holidays are worth caring about you need a couple of worldwide blockbusters about it. Sure there has to be one person at least who celebrates Hanukkah in Japan, but, generally, people don't know about it, so it's just Christmas.If you do encounter the phrase below, it'll be in a Japanese article talking about fads in America.In America there's a weird trend of saying "happy holidays," because... because... I have no idea? It's some stupid phrase someone came up with. What if you commemorate something in July? Nobody says "happy holidays" in July. So what kind of chronological discrimination is this?Anyway the phrase below is actually used in Japanese (not with the same frequency as merry Christmas, though)The famous "jingle bells" song would be calledジングルベル in Japanese. Its actual name, ""one-horse open sleigh," would beワンホース・オープン・スレイ.This is an English song. There's no such thing as lyrics in Japanese. The best you can get is the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/katakanization-meaning.html">katakanized</a> version of the lyrics, which are the same English lyrics but written in a way Japanese people can read.For example, someone posted their katakana version of Jingle Bells in this Japanese page: <a href="http://xmas-eigo.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2015-11-17">ジングルベルの歌詞</a> I saybecause they literally just listened to the song and wrote down what they thought it sounded like. It's not like there's an official version of this thing. You can find a dozen different katakanizations of this song around the internet.Yep. Santa.Sometimes called with the <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/07/kun-san-chan-sama-meaning.html">honorific</a> He lives in the:Where he has a:And employs:And then he has a list of:Whom he gives:And let's not forget what he drives:Whose flight is powered by:And he enters in houses by the:The names of the Santa Claus's reindeer in Japanese are as follows:Other words and phrases:The names of some traditional Christmas foods:Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, what?Fried chicken?Since when is friend chicken a "traditional Christmas food"? Has the world of fast food capitalism and the world of Christmas capitalism collided so hard fast food chains are now traditional? What is going on here???Well, you see, why do people eat a turkey in Christmas dinner? That's because... it's tradition. And what is Christmas? A tradition. A religious tradition. The Christmas dinner is a very literally a feast of the religious kind, at least it was, originally. A country that doesn't have a long history of Christian religious traditions, such as Japan, ends up eating whatever sounds good for the dinner. In Japan's case, it is, seriously, fried chicken.(Some articles on the subject: Smithsonian: <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-japan-is-obsessed-with-kentucky-fried-chicken-on-christmas-1-161666960/">Why Japan Is Obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas</a> and Business Insider: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-kfc-became-a-christmas-tradition-in-japan-2016-12/">how KFC made Christmas all about fried chicken in Japan</a> So yeah, they don't eat turkey. They eat fried chicken.In Japan, the term "Christmas cake," orクリスマスケーキ, may sometimes refer to an unmarried woman above "25 <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/04/age-years-old-in-japanese.html">years old</a> ,"２５歳.This is because Christmas cakes are meant to be consumed by Christmas, which is day 25. This idiom implies a woman above 25 years old should have trouble marrying, as she's still "on the shelf" (unmarried) after the best date for purchase.This term isn't really related to Christmas, it's just a way of saying, but I figured it should be included here anyway.There are a couple of words for "present" in Japanese:They each have their differences and are used in different circumstances. In the case of Christmas, the word preferred comes from the English "present,"There are a few ways to say you're "giving a present" in Japanese, or "receiving a present." First, let's start with the most basic verb:The above only works because in Japanese the wordis also a verb (to present, to gift). The auxiliarymeans "to do," it does not mean "to give."Another way of saying it is using the verbs <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/10/ageru-kureru-morau-difference.html">kureru, ageru and morau</a> Because these are also auxiliary verbs, they can be combined withThe words below are translated to plural, but <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/plurals-in-japanese-grammar.html">Japanese plurals</a> don't work the same way they do in English, so the same word () can be either singular (toy) or plural (toys).The word for "tree" in Japanese is:However, that's just a normal, everyday tree. The holiday tree is called something else, Englishier:It also has some less common names, based on Christianity:Concerning the type of tree the Christmas tree is:The word for decoration in Japanese is:And it comes from a verb, so it has all these sibling words:Japan is in the northern hemisphere, therefore, in December, when it's Christmas, it is:And the temperature is:That is, the the weather is, while everything you touch is. ( <a href="https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2016/08/atsui-atatakai-samui-tsumetai-difference.html">samui vs. tsumetai</a> ). That means "outside is cold,"外は寒い, but "the wind is cold," can be either風は冷たい or風は寒い.When it's cold, it's normal to:So it's better to get something:Since it's cold during Christmas, there's a lot of:Which is often called:This snow often come from the skies, so:Some more snowy terms:When it's Christmas Eve or Christmas and it snows it's called a:And when it does not snow it's called a:As we all know (I think?), Christmas is sort of based on the birth of:The central idea behind:Which is a:So much that a synonym for "Christmas" in Japanese is:(which is kind of ironic, becausepronounced like "Satan," so the word is kind of also "Satan festival." By the way, Satan is justサタン in Japanese, theis pronounced like sardine.)By the way, other holy words for Christmas are:Japan isn't a particularly Christian country, but they do celebrate Christmas. Because everybody in the world celebrates Christmas. Not because they are christian or because they care about Christ, of course not.They celebrate it because it's fun.And there is food.And you get presents.So, in Japan, as well as in many other non-Christian countries, even though they do some Christmas stuff in Christmas, people don't really associate the event and the holidays with Christianity. Because, I mean, who could? What does a fat old man in red clothes breaking into homes going after kids have to do with the bible? I don't really see a connection here.In practice, this means that, while there's a lot of Christians in Christian countries celebrating the birth of Christ in Christmas, there isn't as many in Japan, so you don't really get to see Christian stuff in Christmas with the same frequency you would see the United States or, for example, in Brazil, where I'm from.(WhyChristmas has a page about <a href="https://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/japan.shtml">Christmas in Japan</a> and other countries)I'm just saying this in case you're wondering why, even though there are so many anime with Christmas episodes, you never see anything Christian related in those episodes, you only see the trees, and decorations, and food, and cake eating, and presents, etc. This would be the why.</div>

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