wo yōsu, "None must be allowed to get lost" (lit. "[the authorities] require the absence of losing "). Un-un nasubeki ka to tou, "He asked whether he should do so and so." It will be noticed that the attributive form of the adjective, when thus used, ceases to be an adjective according to European ideas, and corresponds rather to an English abstract substantive, or to an adjective preceded by the verb "to be." The abstract substantives in sa, so common in the colloquial, are almost always replaced in the written language by the attributive adjective form, as samuki for samusa, "the cold." 3. At the end of a clause or sentence, when one of the preceding words of the clause or sentence is an interrogative or the emphatic particle zo, thus: Nanji no tsumi yurusaru to iu to, okite ayume to iu to, izure ka yasuki? "Whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say Rise up and walk?" This use is rarely met with in modern books, except in the semi-classical style.

N.B.-Originally there was a fifth form, obtained by adding kere (for ku are) to the stem. Thus hayakere, bekere. See under heading koso, page 23.

The paradigm of the primary forms of adjectives is as follows:

N.B.-There are in written Japanese no such forms as the colloquial hayai, yoroshii, hayo, etc. Their equivalents are hayashi or hayaki, yoroshi or yoroshiki, hayaku, etc., according to circumstances.

SEC. 2. TENSE AND MOOD IN THE ADJECTIVE.

Being of the nature of a verb, the Japanese adjective is inflected to indicate tense and mood. The conclusive and attributive forms explained above may be termed its present tense, while the indefinite form is of no tense in particular, serving as it does to suspend the meaning until the end of the sentence be reached.

The memory will be assisted by noting that most of the tenses of the affirmative voice and all the tenses of the negative are formed by agglutinating the various inflections of the verb aru, "to be," to the indefinite form (hayaku), the vowel u of the latter being dropped, and the vowel a of the former being in some tenses changed into e; furthermore that beku, beki, beshi, the suffix forming the potential mood, is itself an adjective regularly conjugated through most of the tenses.

Comparison in Japanese is more often implicit than explicit. Thus, when referring to the relative height of Fusiyama and Asamayama, a Japanese will not say "Fusiyama is the higher," but simply "Fusiyama is high" (Fuji wa takashi), viz., in comparison with the other mountain mentioned. Indeed even in English the so-called positive is often a comparative by implication; for when we say, for instance, that "Such and such a person is old," we mean that he is older than most other people. Comparison may, however, be made explicit in Japanese by using the postposition yori, “than " (properly

Hayaki,

"EARLY."

PARADIGM OF ADJECTIVES.

AFFIRMATIVE VOICE.

In the Concessive forms mo is often dropped from the termination domo.

"from"). Thus :-Fuji wa Asama yori takashi, or Asama yori (wa) Fuji wa takashi, lit. "as for Fuji, than Asama, it is high"; i.e. Fusiyama is high as considered from the standpoint of Asamayama." Again:-Asama wa Fuji yori (or hodo) takakarazu, "as for Asama, it is not high as considered from the standpoint of Fuji," i.e. "Asama is less high than Fusiyama." If three or more mountains were spoken of, we should have what in English is termed the superlative, the Japanese idiom remaining the same. Here is another example:-Tenka no wazawai kore yori õi naru wa nashi, "There is no greater misfortune than this" (lit." world's misfortunes, this than, great-being thing is-not").

When not simply implied, or expressed by yori, the comparative and superlative may be indicated by prefixing to the positive some such word as nao, "still more"; itatte "extremely"; oi ni, "greatly "; sukoburu, "very." The superlative is also sometimes indicated by suffixing the word ́ sem-ban, "a thousand myriads;" thus: Kinodoku semban, "Inexpressibly sorry."

Excess of a quality is, like the comparative and superlative, generally denoted by the adjective in its simple form. Thus, "This is too high" will be in Japanese simply "This is high" (Kore wa takashi), viz., by implication, higher than it ought to be. The expression may be rendered more explicit by suffixing the verb suguru, to the adjective stem, as taka-suguru, lit. “to go past in height." The word amari, "excessive," may also be used, prefixed to the simple adjective, thus: Amari takashi, "Altogether too high;" but this is rare.

N.B.-Remember that vast numbers of the words we are obliged to render in English by adjectives are in reality nouns, as explained on page 11.