# Need help saying something in Japanese



## yippee1999

Hi all. I tried going online to those Japanese-English, English-Japanese sites but couldn't find an answer.

I'm not sure how to say I 'liked' something (past tense).

My instinct is that it would be 'sukikatta desu' since the fact that 'suki' is used WITH 'desu' implies that suki is an adjective...as if to say 'I am liking'. Otherwise 'suki' alone would act as a verb with no need for the 'desu' after it. 

So am I right....is it 'sukikatta desu' or would it be 'suki de****a'?

Thank you!!!


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## larabell

Suki is a noun-like adjective, sometimes called a "na-adjective". It doesn't conjugate like most adjectives so "sukikatta" isn't a real word. The informal past tense would be "suki datta". You can't use suki as a verb -- though in Japanese you can leave off the "desu" in conversation (in Japanese, unlike in English, liking something is more a condition of the object than an action of the subject).

Other uses besides "suki desu" would be "suki na neko" (the cat I like), "suki ja nai inu" (the dog I don't like). Since suki doesn't conjugate, "sukikunai" is also not a real word.


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## yippee1999

Thanks so much. It's a noun-like adjective. Hmmm... So would it make sense to say 'totemo suki datta'? I liked it very much....? Or 'taihen suki datta'?

Tku!


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## larabell

Exactly. Or "de****a" if the formality of the situation warrants.

The adjectives that conjugate are generally referred to as "i-adjectives" because they end in the phoneme "i". You might think that "suki" qualifies but the end sound is "ki", not "i". An example of a conjugating adjective might be "atsui" which would be written as a-tsu-i and conjugated to a-tsu-ku-nai or a-tsu-ka-tta (negative and past, respectively). Google around for references to Japanese grammar as dictionaries alone aren't going to give you the whole picture.


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