In Japanese, na-adjectives are words that are usually turned into attributive adjectives by adding a na な after them. Some na-adjectives are always classified as adjectives, but others can be classified as nouns or adverbs when they don't have the na.

The term for "na-adjective" in Japanese is na-keyoushi ナ形容詞, abbreviated na-kei ナ形. They're also confusingly called "adjectival nouns" in English and "adjectival verbs" in Japanese, keiyou-doushi 形容動詞, abbreviated keidou 形動.

• Relationship with Copulas
• Conjugation
• Chart
• Grammar
• Attributive Form
• Predicative Form
• Attributive Copula Na な
• What We Can't Turn Into a Na-Adjective?
• Negative Form
• でない vs. ではない
• Negative Past, etc.
• Past Form
• Te-Form
• Adverbial Form
• Adverbial Copula Ni に
• Ni Naru になる
• Suffixes That Are Na-Adjectives
• You da, You na, You ni
• Sou da, Sou na, Sou ni
• Teki da, Teki na, Teki ni
• Origins

A question people often have about hoshi 欲しい, or rather, hoshii ほしい, an auxiliary adjective that means "want" in Japanese, is: what's the difference between hoshii and tai たい, another auxiliary which also means "want" in Japanese?

• Difference in Usage
• Moraitai もらいたい
• Conjugation

The word hoshii 欲しい is a weird Japanese word. If you check a dictionary, you'll see in Japanese hoshii means "wanted." But that doesn't make much sense, does it? To want is a verb, hoshii is an i-adjective. So how does that work? What's the real meaning of hoshii?

• Definition
• Inflections
• Auxiliary Adjective
  • Causative, Passive, Hoshii ほしい
• 欲しい vs. ほしい
• 欲しがる
• 欲する
• Further Reading

In Japanese, the "tai-form" happens when you add the -tai ～たい auxiliary adjective to the ren'youkei 連用形 conjugation of a verb, causing it to change to the desiderative mood. In other words, -tai means "want to" in Japanese, and verb-tai means "want to verb."

(beware of homonyms: tai 体, morpheme for "body," and tai 対, "versus." Those are also tai but not what this article is about.)

• Conjugation
• Suffixing to Verbs
• Causative Passive Tai-Form
• Chart
• -Tee ～てぇ
• -Tee ～てー
• More Examples
• やりたいこと
• しにたい
• 喜ぶ顔が見たい
• 触りたい…モテたい…
• 知りたくない
• を笑わせたい
• Further Reading

An i-adjective is a type of Japanese adjective with a base form ending in -i ~い, like hayai 速い, "fast," kawaii 可愛い, "cute," tanoshii 楽しい, "fun," and so on.

In Japanese, such words are called keiyoushi 形容詞, "adjectives," or, more specifically, i-keiyoushi イ形容詞, abbreviated i-kei イ形.

The i-adjectives are different from other Japanese adjectives by the fact they're true adjectives: the word is an adjective as-is, it isn't a noun or adverb that needs a particle in order to be used as an adjective. (which is the case with na-adjectives and no-adjectives.)

• Conjugation
  
  • Japanese Terms for Inflections
    
    • 連体形 vs. 終止形
    • Forms and Suffixes
  • Stem
  • Chart
• i-Adjectives vs. Words Ending With -i ～い
• Grammar
  
  • Attributive Form, -i ～い
  • Predicative Form, -i ～い
  • Using the Copula
    
    • -i-n-da ～いんだ
    • -katta desu ～かったです
  • Adverbial Form, -ku ～く
    
    • Adjectives Modifying Adjectives
  • -ku naru ～くなる
    
    • -ku natta ～くなった
  • Te-form, -kute ～くて
    
    • Te-Form & Color Adjectives
  • Ooi 多い vs. Ooku no 多くの
  • Sa-form, -sa ～さ
  • Suffix: -sugiru ～すぎる
  • Suffix: -sou ～そう
  • Ba-form, -kereba ～ければ
  • Tara-form, -kattara ～かったら
  • Tari-form, -kattari ～かったり
  • Volitional form, -karou ～かろう
    
    • 〇〇ろうが〇〇ろうが
  • Imperative form, -kare ～かれ
  • 〇〇かれ〇〇かれ
• Auxiliary Adjectives
  
  • Nakunakunai なくなくない
• ウ音便
• Further Reading
  
  • List of i-adjectives

In Japanese, kono yarou この野郎 means basically "this bastard." Most of the time it's used when a character is swearing and angry at what another character did, but it can also be used when a character is surprised and in disbelief or shock, too.

Grammatically, it's the pronoun kono この, "this," plus the word yarou 野郎, which just really means "guy," but since it's often used in swearing, it's often gets translated as "bastard" instead. See: swearing with kono for details.

• ii kagen ni shi-yagare,
  いい加減にしやがれ、
  
  • [That's enough],
  • [Stop that],
  • [Cut it off],
• kono yarou!!!
  この野郎！！！
  [You bastard]!!!

In anime, sometimes you have a character swearing in Japanese saying something like kono...! something. Like kono yarou!, kono baka yarou!, kono baka!, kono aho! Well. Anyway, it starts with kono この, which means "this," but it often gets translated as "you." In this post I'll explain why.

• How It Works
  • Thinking vs. Saying
• Examples
  • Ko...no... こ…の…
  • Kono Onna この女
  • Kono Yarou この野郎
    • Kono Something Yarou この〇〇野郎
  • Kono Yaku Tatazu この役立たず
  • More Examples

In Japanese, yarou 野郎 (or yarō, also spelled やろう, ヤロー, ヤロウ), is a rather weird word. By itself, it can be a casual or rather rude way to say "guy." Originally, it referred to an adult man. But the way you see it used most often in anime is in insults and swearing.

So, in this post, I'll explain the why of all this.

(beware of homonyms: yarou やろう may also be "let's do it," the volitional form of the verb yaru やる, "to do;" and yarou ヤロウ may refer to the plant, "Yarrow," achillea millefolium.)

• Written in Japanese
  • Kanji
  • Yarō
• Usage
  • Swearing
• Examples
  • Baka Yarou バカ野郎
  • Kono Aho Yarou このアホ野郎
  • Inpo Yarou インポ野郎
  • Maguso Yarou 馬糞野郎
  • More Examples
• Name + No Yarou 〇〇の野郎
• Female Yarou
  • Ama アマ
• Yarou-domo 野郎共
• Other Meanings
• Related History
  • Origin

In Japanese, ore-sama 俺様 is the over-the-top combination of the first person pronoun, ore 俺, and the reverent honorific suffix sama 様. Basically, ore-sama means the same thing as ore, "I," "me," in English, except it's ridiculously pompous and people would only use it in real life as a joke.

Which means it's mostly a trope used in manga and anime. (just like kisama 貴様.)

• ore-sama ni
  fukujuu se yo.
  俺様に服従せよ。
  Submit to me.
  • I command thee to submit to THE GREAT ME.
• e...
  え…
  Eh...

Characters use ore-sama to imply they're extremely important. It's used by the type of character that would say "I'm the strongest" or "the smartest" or "the bestest" or stuff like that.

In Japanese, the phrase kono ore da! この俺だ！ translates literally to "it's this me!" But that sounds weird in English. So, in this post, I'll explain what kono ore means and how it works.

• How It Works
• Hint of Self-Importance
• Kono Ore, Kono Watashi, Kono Boku
• Examples
  • Kono Ore Da この俺だ
  • Kono Ore Ga この俺が
  • Kono Ore Yori この俺より
  • Kono Ore-sama この俺様
  • Kono Boku この僕
  • Kono Watashi この私
  • Kono Watakushi このワタクシ
  • Kono (Insert Name Here)

Kono Dio da! このディオだ！ is a phrase used by Dio in the manga and anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, and I'm making a post about it because the translation of kono Dio da eludes many Japanese learners.


(the small tsu ッ and the prolonged sound mark ー are other symbols in the panel above.)

In Japanese, zawa.. zawa.. ざわ･･ざわ･･ is an onomatopoeia for when a crowd gathers and starts whispering around, creating a commotion, however, it's best known for its usage in the gambling series Kaiji, in which case zawa-zawa shows up in tense, cold-sweat-breaking, anxiety-filled situations, even when there is no crowd around, so there's nothing to emit a zawa-zawa sound.

In the anime adaptation of Kaiji, someone voicing the syllables zawa-zawa is used as the sound effect

In the manga and anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Dio says muda muda muda muda 無駄無駄無駄無駄 as his stand goes around punching people in the face. This translates literally to saying "it's futile" repeated many times, but in the series it's used like ora ora ora ora by Jotarō and his Star Platinum, just a thing to say while throwing punches..

• muda muda muda muda
  muda muda muda muda
  muda muda muda muda
  無駄無駄無駄無駄
  無駄無駄無駄無駄
  無駄無駄無駄無駄
  [It] is futile. (times 12)

Note that although this muda muda muda muda doesn't really mean anything besides the word muda repeated over and over, a single muda 無駄 does mean something in Japanese.

If you've ever watched JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specially Stardust Crusaders, you've probably already heard Kujō Jotarō 空条 承太郎 and his stand, Star Platinum, screaming ora ora ora オラオラオラ at everyone they punched.

And you might have asked yourself: what does this ora ora ora mean in Japanese?

• ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora!!!
  オラオラオラオラオラオラオラオラオラ！！！
  (twelve ora's.)
• dodododododo
  ドドドドドド
  *sound effect for punches*
  (onomatopoeia.)

The answer is: not much.

• Single Ora オラ
• In JoJo

In Japanese, dodododo ドドドド is normally an onomatopoeia for a thumping sound. This could mean a heart thumbing, or of motorbike cylinder engine, or anything like that.

In the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, dodododo isn't an onomatopeia, it isn't the sound of anything, but is used instead as a mimetic word for when something sudden and unexpected happens, something mysterious, of "real form unknown," shoutai-fumei 正体不明, and so on.

• odoro おどろ is the name of the uneasiness background effect used in the first panel.

A number of comedy manga parody this usage from JoJo, so, most of the time, dododo means this even when the manga isn't JoJo. (they also often parody gogogogo ゴゴゴゴ, by the way, another sound effect JoJo uses.)

• Examples
  • Heart Thumping
  • Engine
  • Punches