Learn How to Change Adjectives to paste Tense

Today I’m going to teach on changing Japanese adjectives into negatives. So what adjectives did we learn in the last post?

For い adjectives
あつい、熱い becomes あつかった　です(was hot, was warm)
さむい、寒い becomes さむかった　です(was cold)

To make an い adjective into a past tense, you simple drop the い and replace it with かった　です. Note that you are learning the polite form because there is a です. If you want to make it a plain form because you are talking with your good Japanese friend, remove the です. So it’s just simply さむかった

For な adjectives
きれい、綺麗 becomes きれい　でした(was pretty)
かんたん、簡単 becomes かんたん　でした(was easy)
And for な adjectives, you simply add a でした after it, without the な. The でした is actually a past tense for です. So for example:
For present tense -> わたし　の　ほん　です　(It’s my book)
For past tense -> わたし　の　ほん　でした (It was my book)
To make it into plain forms
です　becomes だ　Example：　わたし　の　ほん　だ (It’s my book)
でした becomes だった Example: わたし　の　ほん　だった (It was my book)

There you have it. Now let’s learn how to change negative adjectives into past tense.

For い adjectives
あつくない、熱くない becomes あつくなかった (Was not hot)
さむくない、寒くない becomes さむくなかった(Was not cold)

So you can see, you can change it into a negative past tense by dropping the い in the ない, and replacing it with かった again.

And for な adjectives
きれい　じゃない　becomes きれい　じゃなかった
かんたん　じゃない becomes かんたん　じゃなかった

You probably have notice, the ない form which also means “not or nothing” can also be made into a past tense. So ない　becomes なかった.
So this is how you learn Japanese:) That’s all for today’s post. We shall learn more new Japanese words in the next post
While you learn Japanese, make sure to have a good lighting, a proper table and good pen and paper. Till then, enjoy learning Japanese

がんばって！