"was cute"?

[nalo6451]

Hi all

So I'm doing a CD listening exercise and it's asking for the translation for "I was small and cute". It sounds like the voice over is saying "はたしはちさくて、かわいいかったです" and I'm just wondering if the actual translation is "かわよかったです" and I'm simply mishearing it?

 

[Mike Cash]

かわいかった

Have you studied adjective conjugation yet?

わたし not はたし

ちいさくて not ちさくて

 

[OoTmaster]

The correct conjugation here would be かわいかった which is the past tense of かわいい.

 

[nalo6451]

So かっこいい would conjugate into かっこいかったです right? I'm getting confused because the CD playback sounds like よかったです when they're actually saying いかったです, so I was under the misapprehension that normal adjectives with いい were conjugated like the irregular adjective いい. Not sure if that makes sense lel.

Thanks anyway guys.

 

[PaulTB]

So かっこいい would conjugate into かっこいかったです right?

Wrong-o. Sorry.
The いい of かっこいい comes from the adjective 良い/好い. Although it is often (usually) read as いい it conjugates from the (original?) よい.

So past tense of かっこいい is かっこよかった

 

[nalo6451]

Wrong-o. Sorry.
The いい of かっこいい comes from the adjective 良い/好い. Although it is often (usually) read as いい it conjugates from the (original?) よい.

So past tense of かっこいい is かっこよかった

Yeah see this is what I thought as well, and so I drew the conclusion that all い adjectives with 'いい' components were conjugated into よかった when translated into past tense, hence the above misapprehension.

So just to clarify, you're saying 'かっこいい' is an exception among い adjectives in that it conjugates like the irregular verb 'いい', such that its affirmative past tense conjugates as 'かっこよかったです' instead of 'かっこいかったです'? Would this also mean 'He is not cool' would be 'かっこよくないです' and 'He was not cool' would be 'かっこよくなかったです'?

 

[nalo6451]

Just found they have a mentioning of some of the exceptions where い adjectives are conjugated as いい. Bad awareness on my part lol. Thanks everyone.

 

[PaulTB]

So just to clarify, you're saying 'かっこいい' is an exception among い adjectives in that it conjugates like the irregular verb 'いい'

More like the いい in かっこいい literally is the irregular adjective いい. Adjectives that end in いい aren't necessarily the same. Check the kanji (if kanji is given). 可愛い (かわいい) obviously can't be based on 好い/良い

Any decent dictionary will point out the conjugation of adjectives. Although you may have to look up the glossary for that dictionary to find out what the notation means.

WWWJDIC gives かっこいい as (adj-ix) for example.

 

[nalo6451]

More like the いい in かっこいい literally is the irregular adjective いい. Adjectives that end in いい aren't necessarily the same. Check the kanji (if kanji is given). 可愛い (かわいい) obviously can't be based on 好い/良い

Any decent dictionary will point out the conjugation of adjectives. Although you may have to look up the glossary for that dictionary to find out what the notation means.

WWWJDIC gives かっこいい as (adj-ix) for example.

Yep that was my assumption as well. I'm learning through a textbook and some phrases like 'あたまがいい' are being taught as a single word with the side-note "conjugated like いい". I'm guessing it's done for simplicity as it is an introductory textbook and to be fair there aren't a lot of them in there. My kanji isn't really up to scratch unfortunately so I don't have any idea what you're even typing there lmao. Working on it though.

 

[Toritoribe]

かっこいい is a colloquial form of 格好（かっこう）がいい, as same as 頭いい, 調子いい or 気持ちいい are from 頭がいい, 調子がいい or 気持ちがいい, respectively. Thus, these adjectives conjugate as "いい", e.g. 頭よかった, 調子よくない or 気持ちよくなかった. 都合がいい is rarely changed to 都合いい, but the adverbial from 都合よく is commonly used.

 

[OoTmaster]

That's very helpful Toritoribe-san. I was aware of the different conjugations on these but wasn't aware of the reasoning behind the differences.