Welcome to the second lesson of my guide to teaching you Japanese a more efficient and hayai (fast) way. I try to make it kantan (easy) for you!
To recap:
Ryan no hon. Ryan’s book.
Hon wa akai desu. The book is red.
Now let’s learn the super informal ways of describing things. Most hon (books) want to teach you the more muzukashi (difficult) method of speaking formally, but these informal declarations are much more common in everyday Nihongo.
Informal Speaking
Let’s start with describing something.
Formal: Hon wa akai desu.
Informal: (Pointing at the book) Akai!
This is better with something non-obvious or striking. Such as if the book is a very and impressive red color. You might instead hear someone exclaim “Yasui!” which means “That’s cheap!”
Almost any adjective can be used this way. You don’t need to point to an object to know you’re talking about it either. In fact, subjects in Japanese are almost always implied. You and a friend are going to a hon (book) store and you see that it’s really tall.
Takai! You exclaim. You’re simply saying the building is really tall! Everyone knows what you’re talking about.
So let’s learn some excellent and useful adjectives.
Japanese Adjectives for beginners.
| Takai | Expensive or Tall or High |
| Yasui | Cheap |
| Muzukashi | Difficult |
| Kantan | Easy |
| Oishii | Delicious |
| Mazui | Gross |
These are some useful adjectives, because they can be used easily by beginners with kotoba (words) that you learn early in your Japanese language learning experience.
Let’s continue to lesson 3 – Amateur Japanese Lessons!