In Hiragana..

[Kalmah]

I noticed some words such as 'aoi' and 'shiroi' are different in Hiragana (the i's are dropped.).. Are there many words that change like this?

 

[Toritoribe]

No.

aoi → あおい
shiroi → しろい

aoi/shiroi is the adjective. ao/shiro is the noun, the name of a color.

 

[Damicci]

So that's how you would explain it? I was going to reply but couldn't think of how to explain the color as a noun.

 

[Toritoribe]

So that's how you would explain it? I was going to reply but couldn't think of how to explain the color as a noun.

'aoi' and 'shiroi' are different in Hiragana (the i's are dropped.)

"aoi" is ALWAYS written as "あおい" in hiragana. It's NEVER omitted "い". In other words, "あお" is NEVER read as "aoi".

Indeed, ao/aka/shiro/kuro are the special words about color in Japanese. But that's another story.

 

[Tomii515]

No, they aren't dropped. Make sure you remember that if you were to take off the "-i" in a word, it could change the meaning completely.

ex:

ちかい - near
ちか - underground

see?

And techincally, with those word, the '-i' isn't dropped.

Look:

あおい - blue [adj.]
しろい - white [adj.]

あお - blue [n.]
しろ - white [n.]

You see, they are "totally" different words, sorta. Ones are adjectives, and the others are nouns.

ex:

いちばんすきないろはあおです。
My most favorite color is blue.

あおいくつがすきです。
I like the blue shoes.

Hope that helps.

 

[Kalmah]

Ah, got it. Thanks a bunch everyone .

 

[Toritoribe]

The relationship between ao and aoi are not totally different like "近い - 地下/地価/治下". Aoi/Shiroi belong to the special group in i-adjectives that the stem itself can be used as a noun. They are quite few.
青い、赤い、白い、黒い、黄色い、茶色い、丸い、四角 い、、、

Anyway, hiragana/katakana are phonograms. aoi ＝ あおい, aoi ≠ あお.