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Adverbs (maybe)

TexMurphy01

先輩
25 Aug 2011
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Hi there,

Just created this account so hello to all.

Here is my question: I was having a Japanese lesson and we were doing relative locations (mae, ushiro, hidari etc.), and there was one sentence which used 'chikaku ni' so as to describe something that is located nearby. So... I know 'chikai' means 'near' as an adjective, but she was unable to satisfactorily explain the difference between the two versions of 'near'.

Now I can't seem to get me head around it. The books I've read don't seem to help me out, which is why I came here. They tell me that one is an adverb and the other is not, but due to the way English and Japanese differ, I can't seem to apply this to the Japanese and come away with any sense at all.

Please, if you can make it simple and give me some examples that would be great. No matter how simple you think your explanation is, if it's possible to make it more simple, please do. It's making me crazy!

Thanks in advance.
 
Chikai and tooi are kind of special adjectives in Japanese. I think basically the rule is that they stay as they are when they're complements (e.g., koko kara wa tookunai or sono mise wa koko ni chikai) or when they deal with abstract things like the future or relationships (e.g., chikai kankei/aidagara or tooi mirai). But when it's a concrete distance, as an attribute, you have to use ~ku no, like chikaku no mise, and as an adverb have to use ~ku ni, like tooku ni aru kuniguni. Does that help a bit?
 
Hey Glenn.

That was a pretty quick reply - you have my thanks. Okay, so I think I understand, and it's interesting to note that these two have a particular pattern.

Even so, I'm still not entirely sure I understand the larger situation of other i- adjectives having the 'ku' and na-adjectives having the 'ni'. If you could also give me something basic on that, that would be fantastic.

Thanks a lot.
 
Well... that's basically it. Hayai -> hayaku ("fast" -> "quickly"), osoi -> osoku ("slow" -> "slowly"), shizuka (na) -> shizuka ni ("quiet" -> "quietly"), etc. It's pretty straightforward for most of them.

Note, though, that this "adverbial" form is also a connective form, and is similar to the Vmasu form in that sense. I.e., eki made aruku ("walk to the station"), eki made aruki, densha ni noru ("walk to the station, then get on a train") and kaze ga tsuyoku, ame ga hageshii ("the wind is strong and the rain is fierce"). Well, alright, so the last one may not be the most natural (we'll need native speaker input on that one), but I hope it illustrates that function of the ~ku form.

To take that last example, though, kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru could be used to say "the wind is blowing strongly." I hope that helps.
 
Kaze ga tsuyoku, ame ga hageshii sounds perfectly natural as a description of a weather condition.:)
 
Ha! Awesome! :)

Well, I'm glad I still have some sense of the language left in me. haha 😌
 
Well, thanks very much. Sometimes books are fine, but having someone to ask is often the better option.

Again, thanks. You also taught me a bit about that 'i' verb ending. Bonus.
 
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