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Old 2013-02-22, 13:20   Link #3629
LeoXiao
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Vereinigte Staaten
Age: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kudryavka View Post
I mean for words that are just nouns, not already common -na adjectives. Like could I do 犬な?
As seen in the example "keizaiteki" (economical), rendered 经济的 (sorry, computer can only type PRC characters), what we have is "keizai", or the noun "economics", followed by the kanji " 的" (teki), which indicates an adjective. But to make this work in Japanese you need the "-na", as "keizaiteki" is indeclinable according to the "-ii" adjective rules.

JINNSK gave the kanji 綺麗 for "kirei" and said that it is not an adjective. Actually it is in noun form ("beauty", I guess), but it can be made into an adjective simply by adding "-na" to it. As another example there is the word "zankoku" (cruel), written 残酷, which is also in "noun form" (cruelty), so it takes "-na" as well.

Note that none of these examples end in a double "-ii" sound. Also, all of these examples are in the On'yomi form of pronunciation, i.e. adapted directly from Chinese, while the "-ii" examples like "yasashii", "mezurashii" or "muzukashii" are Kun'yomi and therefore native Japanese words.
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