This lesson is a continuation of Lessons 14 and 16. Recall that Lesson 14 dealt with い adjectives and Lesson 16 dealt with negative い adjectives.

Recall that in order to change an い adjective from affirmative to negative form, one changes the last い to くない.

In order to make the past form of an い adjective, change the last い to かった. Remember that the negative (ない) form of いi adjectives are also い adjectives, so you can change them to the past form in the same way.

Example:

あかい
あかかった

あかくない
あかくなかった

おもしろい
おもしろかった
おもしろくなかった

むずかしい
むずかしかった
むずかしくなかった

red
was red

not red
was not red

interesting
was interesting
was not interesting

difficult
was difficult
was not difficult

The " noun は adjective です :=: noun is adjective" pattern still holds true for the past and past negative forms of い adjectives.

Examples:

あかかった くるま

a car that was red

Note that the examples above are literally ' a was-red car', 'a was-difficult test', and 'a wasn't new pencil', but if you're going to translate it is always better to translate into proper English rather than Japanese-ized English.

Lesson 17 Vocabulary:

あかい
おもしろい
むずかしい

-かった
-くなかった

しけん

red
interesting
difficult

suffix for past tense i adjectives
suffix for past negative i adjectives

test (n.)