Adnominal Adjectives: /i/ vs /na/
Though adjectives typically come before nouns in Japanese, adnominal adjectives are adjectival phrases which cannot conjugate and are solely placed before the noun, meaning they can never function as the predicate of the main clause. Adnominal adjectives are known in Japanese as 連体詞, which constitutes a separate part of speech, with familiar phrases such as この・その・あの being primary examples.
In this lesson, we will be focusing on 連体詞 which derive from 形容詞, as they exhibit significant overlap with their normal adjectival iterations. Appearance-wise, the difference appears to be the choice between /i/ and /na/ after the root, but to understand how big of a difference this choice makes, let’s first consider the following examples which utilize 小さい or 小さな, both translating as “small.”
i. 山の小さい鳥たちを観賞しています。
I’m admiring the small birds of the mountain.
ii. あの山の小さな町に住んでいます。
I live in the small town on that mountain.
iii. ネアンデルタール人は本当に体格｛が・の｝｛小さい ○・小さな X｝人種だったのですか。
Were the Neanderthals really a small-build human species?
iv. ネアンデルタールは本当に体格が小さかったのですか。
Were the builds of Neanderthals actually small?
While 小さい and 小さな are syntactically identical in i. and ii., this is not the case in iii or iv. Of the two forms, only 小さい can be seen in the predicative form, a.k.a, the 終止形, while we see that both 小さい and 小さな are used as attributes (the 連体形).
As is the case with English, nouns can be modified by more than one modifier. This is the case in i., but 小さい does not constitute as subordinate clause; it is simply being used to mean “small bird”. This prevents the speaker from interpreting 山の小さい鳥たち as “birds with small mountains,” but this is an important point to keep in mind.
In iii., 小さい is a part of an embedded subordinate clause, which is a function that 小さな generally does not have. Although adnominal phrases do not inherently have the syntactic role of behaving as predicates, there are rare instances of this being broken.
v. ｛小さい・小さな（△）｝時から大好きでした。
I loved it since I was little.
Motives for this include the frequency of adnominal adjectives being higher than their normal adjectival variant before nouns and the sentimental change in nuance for choosing the adnominal adjective over the normal adjectival variant.
Adnominal adjectives in many ways are just like no-adjectives but without the ability of the copula to allow them to be modified for tense or negation. Another major difference is how adnominal adjectives typically do not float around, and when they do, the resulting sentence will sound very literary and not reflective of everyday speech.
vi. 小さなこの部屋で貴方を待っている。(Lyrical)
In this small room, I wait for you.
vii. この小さな部屋であなたを待っている。(Typical Word Order)
I am waiting for you in this small room.
/i/ & /na/ Pairs
The syntactic differences outlined above may explain the differences between adnominal adjectives and their normal, non-adnominal adjective counterparts, but it is just as important to consider the semantic differences for when they overlap.
Before getting into further detail, in the chart below you will find a list of all the essential adnominal adjectives (to the right), of which there are only three1.
| Meaning | 形容詞 | 連体詞 |
| Small | 小さい | 小さな |
| Large | 大きい | 大きな |
| Strange | 可笑しい | 可笑しな |
1. か細い声はだんだん大きくなっている。(Use of 大きい)
The fragile voice is becoming gradually larger.
2. 驚くほど小さな素足が露わになった。 (Use of 小さな)
Surprisingly small bare feet became exposed.
Grammar Note: In Ex. 2 小さな is at the head of a dependent clause, but most importantly, it demonstrates how adnominal adjectives derived from adjectives may be modified by adverbs.
3. 小さな声で話しかける。(Use of 小さな)
To talk to someone in a small voice.
4. 大きい希望の雲が湧いている。(Use of 大きい)
Large clouds of hope are gushing forth.
5. 大きな希望の雲が湧いている。(Use of 大きな)
Clouds of great hope are gushing forth.
Nuance Differences
Generally speaking, the use of a /i/-ending adjective over its adnominal adjectival counterpart is meant to be objective. Meanwhile, the use of a /na/-ending adnominal adjective is meant to be subjective and elicit an emotional response.
小さい vs 小さな & 大きい vs 大きな
Generally speaking, 小さな and 大きな are only used to indicate physical size but with a subjective twist. Only 小さい and 大きい may be used to indicate small/large monetary values, and they may even be used to mean “old” and “young” in the context of age among siblings.
6. 世界一小さい紙幣は何ですか。
What is the world’s smallest paper bill?
7. 大きくなったね。
My, you have grown.
8. 小さい頃からずっとそう思っていました。
I have always thought so since I was little.
9. 中央に小さなテーブルがありました。
There was a small table in the center.
10. 世界で一番大きい建物は何ですか。
What is the largest building in the world?
11. 大きな政府を求める人たちが必ずどこの国にもいる。
There are always people who seek big government in any country.
12. ４００円ですか。すみません、｛大きい ○・大きな X｝のしかないんです。
It’s 400 yen? I’m sorry, but I only have large ones (bills).
Grammar Note: Another grammatical restraint that all adnominal adjectives possess is that they cannot modify the nominalizer の when used as a pronoun, or any dummy noun for that matter.
おかしい vs おかしな
おかしい is generally used in positive connotations in the sense of “funny,” whereas おかしな is generally used in negative connotations in the sense of “weird/suspicious/odd.” This, of course, is only a rule of thumb.
13. おかしな顔をする。
To make a strange/suspicious face.
14. おかしい顔をする。
To make a strange/funny face.
15. おかしい話ですね。
What a strange thing to say.
16. おかしな行動を取る。
To take strange/suspicious action(s).
- There also exists many variant pairs which differ by ending in /i/ or /na/ but with the /na/ variants functioning as full-fledged 形容動詞. ↩︎