'Conjugating' i-adjectives This conjugating of adjectives is most fascinating. I still have a ‘mondai’ or two left, though. So, sumimasen, I hope someone can clarify bit. 1) In general, can -kunai be used to negate the adjective like one would use ‘not’ in English? Like: Kono koneko wa kawaikunai desu. (To mean: That’s not a cute kitten.) 2) Lots of adjectives I saw examples of end in double ii, like tanoshii, yasashii, etc. The last 'i' gets dropped and replaced with '-kunai' to form a negative. But what about those ending in single ‘i’, like ‘kowai’ (= scary/scared). Could I say the following? Watashi wa kowaikunai yo! (To mean: I’m not scared!) Dropping the single ‘i’, to form kowakunai, feels awfully wrong somehow. 3) Speaking of kowai, I recently picked up that word in an Anime (Ergo Proxy), where Pino keeps referring to Re-L as "kowai onee-chan" (= the scary lady). Can you really use onee-chan (= sister + honorific suffix) to mean ‘lady,’ as used in the above context? Or did I did I just mishear? Much obliged.Hmm, if I hear correctly, seems I need to drop the last 'i' regardless. So, 'kowakunai' would be correct, after all.Okay, let me see if I got this straight: Watashi wa kowakunakatta yo! (To mean: "I was not scared!") Or, formal, Watashi wa kowakuarimasen deshita. Or, Koneko wa kowakuarimasen deshita. (To mean: "The kitten was not scary!")I'm sorry, Wozitoya, but your answer confuses me. :( I thought 'ja nai' was only for special words, like 'kirei', 'tenei', etc. (which are not really i-adjectives). Everything I learnt so far (which, granted, is limited, of course, after 2 weeks) tells me that only 'kawaikunai' is correct, and that 'kawai ja nai' is incorrect. So, I'm greatly confused now. Somebody, kindly unconfuse me! Nihongo no benkyo wa yasashikunai yo! LOL.@Michelle, arigato gozaimasu! That was a most illuminating lesson in subtlety! And I noticed I actually used 'kono' (this) instead of 'sono' (that) neko. Not that it really mattered all that much for the example, but still. I will examine your word order variations more closely to try and get it right next time. It's important: if you can't say what you mean, you can't mean what you say! I'm just a newbie, of course, so I'll forgive myself this time. :) Demo, watashi wa ganbarimasu!