Conjugating colours

Coffeesan · 13 Mar 2012

Non-past
Akai 赤い
Akakunai 赤くない

Past
Akakatta 赤かった
Akakunakatta 赤くなかった

Stem: Aka あか

So read in a book these were conjugations. They also seem to work for Shiro 白and Ao 青, white and blue. However when I write out other colours with their stems and apply the same rules to the stems microsoft IME doesnt recognise them. For example when I write Green...

Midori 緑 then try to conjugate it e.g. 緑くない it comes out as --- 緑区内

What am I doing wrong? Does it have a special rule because the stem ends in a "i" い and with i-adjectives you have to drop it during conjugation? Hope this make sense cheeeers.

staren · 13 Mar 2012

Coffeesan said:
Non-past
Akai 赤い
Akakunai 赤くない

Past
Akakatta 赤かった
Akakunakatta 赤くなかった

Stem: Aka あか

So read in a book these were conjugations. They also seem to work for Shiro 白and Ao 青, white and blue. However when I write out other colours with their stems and apply the same rules to the stems microsoft IME doesnt recognise them. For example when I write Green...

Midori 緑 then try to conjugate it e.g. 緑くない it comes out as --- 緑区内

What am I doing wrong? Does it have a special rule because the stem ends in a "i" い and with i-adjectives you have to drop it during conjugation? Hope this make sense cheeeers.

The adjectives for red and blue are 青い and 赤い。There is no adjective 緑い。To say not green you cold say 緑色じゃないです。

Mike Cash · 13 Mar 2012

This is the sort of problem that doesn't come up when one uses a proper textbook.

FrustratedDave · 13 Mar 2012

Thats like saying,

ありがとうございません

Toritoribe · 13 Mar 2012

In Japanese, the four colors 赤, 青, 黒, 白 are special. They are nouns, and also the stems of i-adjectives. The other colors don't have conjugation forms, but 黄色 and 茶色 are the only two exceptions. These colors can work as i-adjectives when used with 色.

○赤い青い黒い白い
○黄色い茶色い

×黄い茶い緑い紫い桃い
×緑色い紫色い桃色い

FYI, 赤[aka], 青[ao], 黒[kuro], 白[shiro] have the same etymology as 明るい[akarui: bright], 淡い[awai: pale], 暗い[kurai: dark], 顕し[shiroshi: clear/sharp], respectively.

eeky · 13 Mar 2012

FrustratedDave said:
Thats like saying,

ありがとうございません

Just browsing, but I was curious about what this comment means. Could you explain?

Coffeesan · 13 Mar 2012

eeky said:
Just browsing, but I was curious about what this comment means. Could you explain?

I wondered this too... I dont know the exact function of gozaimasu other than its added to thank you and compliments to bump it up into the upper echelons of politeness and as I found out last week it can go on the end of verbs as the most polite form which I forget the name of. But as masen is a negative isnt it kinda conveying "thank you not very much" sort of thing? :-|

Toritoribe · 14 Mar 2012

Coffeesan said:
I wondered this too... I dont know the exact function of gozaimasu other than its added to thank you and compliments to bump it up into the upper echelons of politeness and as I found out last week it can go on the end of verbs as the most polite form which I forget the name of. But as masen is a negative isnt it kinda conveying "thank you not very much" sort of thing? :-|

Probably Dave-san wanted to say 緑くない is wrong as same as ありがとうございません is so. Although you can use ありがたくございません as "I don't appreciate it". ございます is an honorific of ある, so the negative ございません works as an honorific of ない.
e.g.
ありがたくない --> ありがたくありません --> ありがたくございません
申し訳ありません。今は在庫がありません。 --> 申し訳ございません。ただいま在庫がございません。

BTW, you didn't show ANY RESPONSE to our answers to your initial question. You've already understood about Japanese adjectives for colors? Or, you haven't gotten it yet? I think you should say something about it BEFORE asking next question.

Coffeesan · 14 Mar 2012

Toritoribe said:
Probably Dave-san wanted to say 緑くない is wrong as same as ありがとうございません is so. Although you can use ありがたくございません as "I don't appreciate it". ございます is an honorific of ある, so the negative ございません works as an honorific of ない.
e.g.
ありがたくない --> ありがたくありません --> ありがたくございません
申し訳ありません。今は在庫がありません。 --> 申し訳ございません。ただいま在庫がございません。

BTW, you didn't show ANY RESPONSE to our answers to your initial question. You've already understood about Japanese adjectives for colors? Or, you haven't gotten it yet? I think you should say something about it BEFORE asking next question.

It wasnt that I forgot Toritoribe.... I didnt really understand much of what was said so took the info and bits I did understand back to my books and notes to try to make more progress before jumping in with more questions. I try not to ask many questions on here anymore only when I'm really stuck with something..

Toritoribe · 14 Mar 2012

Coffeesan said:
I didnt really understand much of what was said so took the info and bits I did understand back to my books and notes to try to make more progress before jumping in with more questions.

Then you should have said so instead of saying nothing, just as I wrote.

Coffeesan · 14 Mar 2012

Toritoribe said:
Then you should have said so instead of saying nothing, just as I wrote.

I apologise Toritoribe, this being one occasion where I can actually see I may have come across as rude, so apologies.

Toritoribe · 15 Mar 2012

No need to apologize. I just want to know if my answer is satisfactory to the questioner or not.

Conjugating colours

Coffeesan

先輩

staren

先輩

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

FrustratedDave

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

eeky

先輩

Coffeesan

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Coffeesan

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Coffeesan

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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