Lesson 37 of 40
Vocabulary Sprint w15 — な or い, and the word that means both a thing and its opposite
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Predict whether an adjective takes な or い from where the word came from.
- Read 適当 in both its senses, and say which one the sentence means.
Words this lesson teaches
- 普通
- ordinary, usual — な; also the slow train that stops everywhere
- まじめ
- earnest, conscientious — な; praise, not an accusation of dullness
- 適当
- suitable — and also slapdash; な, and the context decides which
- 盛ん
- thriving, widely done — な; of an industry or a sport in a place
- 丁寧
- polite, careful — な; of manners and of handwriting alike
- 複雑
- complicated — な; of a problem, a route, or a feeling
- じゃま
- in the way, a nuisance — な; おじゃまします is what you say entering a home
- 熱心
- keen, wholehearted — な; 熱 is heat and 心 is the heart
- 凄い
- amazing, or dreadful — い; originally the second, now mostly the first
- 深い
- deep — い; of water, of snow, and of a relationship
- 細かい
- fine, detailed, small — い; 細かいお金 is small change
- ひどい
- awful, cruel — い; of weather, of a mistake, and of a person's behaviour
- 苦い
- bitter — い; of taste, and of an experience
- うまい
- skilful, and tasty — い; casual and male-leaning for tasty, where おいしい is neutral
- 珍しい
- rare, unusual — い; and a pleasant surprise more often than not
- 美しい
- beautiful — い; weightier than きれい, and closer to written than spoken
- すばらしい
- wonderful, splendid — い; unreservedly good, unlike 凄い
- におい
- a smell — a noun, not an adjective; a pleasant scent is usually 香り
- かっこう
- appearance, the look of a thing — かっこいい, looking good, comes from it
- そんな
- that sort of — sits straight in front of a noun and takes no な of its own
- たいてい
- usually, for the most part — an adverb, not an adjective as the syllabus has it
What it explains
うまい, 凄い and におい carry more than their glosses
うまい means skilful and also tasty, and in the second sense it is casual and leans male — a man might say 「うまい」 of a meal where おいしい is what anybody can say and what you should say to a host. 凄い began as dreadful and now does most of its work as amazing, so 「凄い雨」 can be admiring or appalled and the tone carries it. におい is a smell, and while it is not automatically bad, a good smell is more often called 香り, so 「においがする」 with no adjective in front of it tends to be read as a complaint. None of these is a rule you can apply mechanically. They are the difference between a sentence that is correct and one that lands the way you meant, and a glossary cannot show it.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.