Socky
Member
From: United States
Registered: 2013-05-24
Posts: 66
I'm currently reading some of "Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese" and I'm a little confused about the section that describes "い Adjectives", or adjectives ending in い. Apparently, the declarative だ (casual version of です) cannot be attached/written at the end of い adjectives.
The exact sentence:
"Well, just like the negative state-of-being for nouns, you can never attach the declarative 「だ」 to i-adjectives...
Do NOT attach 「だ」 to i-adjectives."
I assume this also goes for です.
Anyway, I just wanted to ask what exactly he means by this, because I'm sure I misunderstood.
Is it therefore incorrect to say:
"高い[だ/です]" ... (It is high)
or
"優しい[だ/です]"... (It is kind)
or だ/です after any い adjective?
I have a feeling I'm misunderstanding this... I would appreciate any answers. Thanks 
Hi there,
You understood correctly that the declarative だ is never attached to い-adjectives.
So the casual version of 'It's high.' would simply be 高い。
です, on the other hand, can be attached to い-adjectives. I know it's easy to see です as the formal version of だ, but really they work in different ways at times, so it's best not to assume the same rules apply to both of them.
The formal version of 'It's high.' would be 高いです。
Does that make sense?
Socky
Member
From: United States
Registered: 2013-05-24
Posts: 66
solongsekhu wrote:
Hi there,
You understood correctly that the declarative だ is never attached to い-adjectives.
So the casual version of 'It's high.' would simply be 高い。
です, on the other hand, can be attached to い-adjectives. I know it's easy to see です as the formal version of だ, but really they work in different ways at times, so it's best not to assume the same rules apply to both of them.
The formal version of 'It's high.' would be 高いです。
Does that make sense?
Thank you very much, for the simple and quick response! 
I understand now 
ありがとうございます!
[Edit] Sorry, but one more thing.
Is 高いじゃない correct, or should it be 高くない or 高いではない?
What's the deal with negatives?
Last edited by Socky (2013 July 12, 2:22 pm)