Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 3: 13/13

い-Adjective (Past)Was, Were (Past tense)

い-Adjectives, whether positive or negative, cannot be used with だ

Structure

［い］Adjective［い］+ かった

Examples:
おもしろい + かった
新(あたら)しい + かった

Details

  • Adjective

  • Auxiliary Verb

  • Standard

About い-Adjective (Past)

In order to create the past form of い-Adjectives, you must add the auxiliary verb た to the 'past' conjunction form of the い-Adjective. The past conjunction form is created by removing the い and replacing it with かっ. This structure is equivalent to 'was' in English.

面白(おもしろ)い - 'Interesting' in its base (dictionary form).

面白(おもしろ)かっ - The conjugation form used with た (and several other auxiliary verbs).

From these examples, we can see how the casual past form is constructed. In modern Japanese, simply adding です after た is considered to be the standard polite past form.

Caution

Although this is considered to be polite by most people, using です after かった is not academically correct Japanese. However, considering how common its usage has become, it may be used in almost any situation confidently.

Examples

--:--

  • 寒(さむ)かった。

    It was cold.

  • それは、高(たか)かった。

    That was expensive.

  • 田中(たなか)さんは強(つよ)かったです。

    Tanaka-san was strong.

  • 私(わたし)の姉(あね)の家(いえ)が古(ふる)かったです。

    My (older) sister's house was old.

  • 動物園(どうぶつえん)は楽(たの)しかった。

    The zoo was fun.

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い-Adjective (Past) – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (5 in total)

  • casual

    casual

    I think the question was, what is then considered correct polite past form from Bunpro’s point of view. Surely a simple かった without です would be considered non-polite, so it cannot be that.

    Bunpro article on one hand instructs to use です, on the other hand seems to warn against using it, but then doesn’t give any alternative… Is this caution block even needed, especially at N5 level?

  • tankenka

    tankenka

    It is just fine to use です after the past tense of an い adjective. (I double-checked with several of the Japanese teachers of English in my school just to be sure).

    With friends? (Casual) ～かった
    With someone you need/want to be polite to? (Polite)～かったです

    Both 美味しかった and 美味しかったです are perfectly correct (examples) and are used with near equal frequency.

  • JamesBunpro

    JamesBunpro

    I’m going to jump in and explain what the line in the write up is talking about and why it is there. This explanation is beyond N5 grammar, so for anyone reading who is currently learning this point you don’t need to worry about the details!

    The use of “い-adjectives” (形容詞) with です is something that has slowly become accepted in the language, as it allows people to speak politely but not pretentiously. Historically, to make the polite form of an い-adjective you actually had to conjugate it and add ございます. I will use non-past examples to keep things simpler, but what is said below applies to the past tense as well:

    おいしい (It is tasty)
    おいしゅうございます (It is tasty (polite))

    Note that this is the source of the below common phrases:

    早い → おはようございます (It is early (polite, respectful))
    ありがたい → ありがとうございます (It is something to be grateful for (polite))

    However, this is a bit long and pretentious/stiff...

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