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い adjective conjugation question

Dante17

先輩
3 Dec 2013
185
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Hi there, I've encountered a problem when conjugating I adjectives. For example;

We have かわいい which has the stem of かわい so it should conjugate like this:

Present affirm: かわいいです

Present neg: かわくないです

Past affirm: かわいかったです

Past neg: かわくなかったです

Now, obviously when conjugated negatively く replaces the final い of the stem but here comes my problem. I've seen people conjugating it without removing the い and creating conjugations such as:

かわいくないです

Or

かわいくなかったです


And I must ask, who is wrong here? Me or the people who conjugate in this way? My book has stated quite clearly that く replaces the final い syllable when conjugated negatively for い adjectives. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1405335486.519901.jpg


Could someone please elaborate what going on here? I'm very confused.
 
Also, I must ask how does one properly find a stem of an い adjective. Don't you have to remove the final い? Eg: さむい becomes さむ?
 
Present affirm: かわいいです

Present neg: かわくないです

Past affirm: かわいかったです

Past neg: かわくなかったです

kawaii is written as 可愛い
Present affirm:
可愛い [か.わい.い]
Present Negative:
可愛くない「か.わい.くない」
Past affirm:
可愛かった 「か.わい.かった」
Past Negative:
可愛くなかった「か.わい.くなかった」


note:
from the attached pic, いい is irregular!
 
I'm sorry, I'm way too confused right now. I'm not understanding that if く replaces the last い in the stem of a verb you can conjugate かわいくない for present negative... Why is the い there? God, this should be so basic to me by now but it's wracking my mind. As for my asking about how to find a stem, I asked because I am uncertain on if removing the い creates the stem or not. I assume it is as the stem of かわいい is かわい.
 
And are you saying that because there is a double いい in かわいい that it follows irregular conjugation rules?
 
かわいい is a completely regular い-adjective. If you take off the last い and append くない, you get かわいくない, not かわくない (that would mean you took off the last *two* い's).
 
The only irregular one I can think of other than いい is かっこいい (conjugates the same way as いい). Just watch out for things like きれい and きらい which are な adjectives.
 
It clearly says the final い....

Pay attention to seemingly insignificant stuff like that and you'll save yourself a lot of needless anguish.
 
Ah, but I thought it was referring to the final い of the stem ( if present ). It'd have helped if it said the final い of the present affirmative conjugation.
 
Just to confirm, it is the final い of the present tense conjugation that is replaced with く in the negative?
 
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