Emotions

Using emotions in Japanese sentence are usually quite easy and many of them are i-adjectives, some are na-adjectives and others are even verbs.

Remember, when it is obvious what is being talked about about, the topic marked with は is usually omitted completely as in the first example. When は is used, it is just clarifying what is being talked about, especially if the topic has changed as seen in the second example above. When talking about emotions, the missing topic is usually understood to be "me", the person speaking.

New Words to Learn

Here is a list of emotions as a mix of i-adjectives, na-adjectives, nouns and verbs. By now, you should be able to tell which type each word is.

Here, "Angry" and "Worry" are already conjugated with Te-form + いる to mean they are currently happening. The last verb, "Tired" is already conjugated into the past tense meaning the subject has finished getting to that emotion and is now in that state.

In order to really use "Love" as an emotion, you will need to add the verb する (to do) at the end and use an object, otherwise, it is just an ordinary noun. In the following example, it is also possible to say the same thing by adding 大 (big) to the adjective 好き (like) to mean "big like" as in "Love".

しい-Adjectives with Verb Pairs

From the words table above, you will see that some of these i-adjectives end in しい; these are known as personal emotive adjectives as they are used for describing our own feelings. Because of this, while using かなしい can be used to say we are sad, you can't when thinking that someone else is sad.

Many しい Adjectives have a Verb pair that lets us talk about other people's feelings; many of these will end in しむ. You can check a dictionary if you are not sure. Here, there are two words that we have already seen that can be used as verbs to describe other people's feelings.

Emotive adjectives with しい assume it is the speakers own feelings being described rather than someone else's emotions being talked about.

In the example below, the i-adjective 楽しい (fun) is describing the speakers own feelings; the topic is the thing that the speaker feels something about.

With the verb 楽しむ (to enjoy), the topic must be the person who feels something. Here, 楽しむ is conjugated to the Te-form 楽しんで; the object is the thing the emotion is reflected on.

While emotive verbs may be used in the first person as a topic, the state of emotion described in this way is not influenced by personal feelings.

Let's take a look at another example but this time using the 悲しい and 悲しむ pairs for the emotional state of being "sad". See if you can understand why each translation is given the way it is.

Additional Notes