How to Modify Nouns with the Ta-form

Last time, you learned how to express past tense and perfect present tense like “昨日きのうケーキを食たべました (I ate cake yesterday)” and “さっきケーキを食たべました (I have eaten cake just now).” In this lesson, we would like to focus on one of the special functions of the ta-form: to be treated as an adjective.

Explanation for How to Let the Ta-from Modify Nouns

You have already learned some ways to modify nouns like relative clauses. In fact, the ta-form is deeply involved with modification. First of all, let’s complete the conjugation rule. Nouns and adjectives also have the ta-form.

Table of Contents The Conjugation Rule The Ta-form Used in Noun Phrase or Relative Clauses Summary

The Conjugation Rule

Nouns and Na-adjectives

	Plain	Ta-form
Casual	先生せんせいだ	先生せんせいだった
Polite	先生せんせいです	先生せんせいでした
Casual-Negative	先生せんせいじゃない	先生せんせいじゃなかった
Polite-Negative	先生せんせいじゃありません	先生せんせいじゃありませんでした

I-adjectives

	Plain	Ta-form
Casual	寒さむい	寒さむかった
Polite	寒さむいです	寒さむかったです
Casual-Negative	寒さむくない	寒さむくなかった
Polite-Negative	寒さむくありません	寒さむくありませんでした

The basic idea remains the same as verbs with the ta-form. When you use polite speech, you replace す with した in affirmative and add でした in negative sentences. When the last character is い, you replace い with かった. What is new here is that you replace だ with だった when you conjugate nouns and na-adjective in casual speech. And, you add です with i-adjectives in the ta-form (寒かった) to express polite speech (寒かったです). This is where learners often make a mistake. Keep in mind that “寒いでした” is wrong.

Examples

昔むかし、私わたしは医い者しゃ（だった / でした）。
I was a doctor a long time ago.

昨日きのうは元げん気きじゃ（なかった / ありませんでした）。
As for yesterday, [I] was not fine.

去年きょねんの夏なつはとても暑あつかった（です）。
The summer in the last year was very hot.

旅行りょこうは楽たのしく（なかった / ありませんでした）。
As for the travel, [it] was not fun.

Of course, they can be used as a predicate. As you learned before, you can be more formal or colloquial in negative sentences like this;

(Formal) 昨日きのうは元げん気きでは（なかった / ありませんでした）。

(Polite-Colloquial) 旅行りょこうは楽たのしくなかった（です）。

Now, let’s move on to the main topic: how to modify nouns by using the ta-form

The Ta-form Used in Noun Phrase or Relative Clauses

Relative Clause and Nominalizers

田た中なかさんが	買かった	服ふくは	和わ服ふく（だ / です）
Subject	Verb: Ta-form	Modified Noun
Relative Clause: Topic/Subject			Predicate
Clothing that Tanaka-san bought is a Japanese clothing.

田た中なかさんが	有名ゆうめいだった	こと・のは	本当ほんとう（だ / です）
Subject	Adj: Ta-form	Nominalizer
Relative Clause: Topic/Subject			Predicate
[The fact that] Tanaka-san was famous is true.

Both relative clauses and nominalizers allow you to connect the ta-form with nouns or こと・の as you can with the plain form. The conjugation and the conjugation remain the same as the ones used as a predicate. Here are more examples.

昨日きのう飲のんだジュースを覚おぼえて（いる / いますか）？
Do [you] remember the juice which [we] drank yesterday?

お母かあさんが作つくった料りょう理りは美味おいしい（です）。
Meals which [my] mother made are delicious.

タバコを吸すったことを後悔こうかいして（いる / います）。
[I] regret [that I] smoked.

去年きょねん寒さむかったことを忘わすれて（いる / います）。
[We] forget that [it] was cold last year.

田た中なかさんが女優じょゆうだったことに（驚おどいた / 驚おどきました）。
[I] have been surprised with [the fact] that Tanaka-san was an actress.

That’s simple, isn’t it? Be careful; however, you need to pay attention to the following three points.

1. Past-Adjectives

有名ゆうめいだった人ひと: person who was famous
元げん気きじゃなかった犬いぬ: dog which was not fine
寒さむかった冬ふゆ: winter which was cold
楽たのしくなかった旅行りょこう: travel which was not fun

Since adjectives can directly modify nouns, the above examples are natural in Japanese. Let’s say that they are past-adjectives and indicate constant states in the past.

元げん気きじゃなかった犬いぬ: dog which was not fine [in the past]
元げん気きな犬いぬ: dog which is fine [now]

Essentially, the examples above have the same meaning. Since adjectives indicate constant states, using adjectives in past tense indicates that the attributes have already changed at present.

昨日きのうは強つよい・~~強かった~~雨あめが降ふって（いた / いました）。
[It] was strongly raining yesterday

This sentence expresses a continuous action in the past. That is to say, the constant state: “strong rain” doesn’t change. Thus, 強つよい should be used.

強い・強つよかった雨あめがついに（やんだ / やみました）。
The strong rain has finally stopped.

This sentence expresses the end of the action. That is to say, the constant state: “strong rain” has changed. Thus, 強つよかった should be used. Here are more examples.

寒さむい冬ふゆは嫌きらい（だった / でした）。
[I] disliked cold winters

寒さむかった冬ふゆは（終おわった / 終おわりました）。
The cold winter has finished.

昨日きのう、有名ゆうめいな歌か手しゅに（会あった / 会あいました）。
[I] met a famous singer yesterday.

有名ゆうめいだった歌か手しゅはもう引退いんたいして（いた / いました）。
The famous singer had already retired.

2. Verbs of the Ta-form Treated as Adjectives

太ふとった人ひと: person who got fat
痩やせた人ひと: person who got thin
かばんを持もった人ひと: person who held the bag
着き物ものを着きた人ひと: person who put on a kimono

This usage is applicable for only verbs which can express resultant states. For such verbs, the plain form indicates momentary actions and the te-form + いる indicates ongoing states. That is to say, 太ふとった means the momentary action taken in the past. Let’s see the following chart.

After the action: 太ふとった, the state: 太ふとっている has been on going. Therefore, In Japanese, we essentially regard “太ふとった人ひと: person who got fat“ and “太ふとっている人: person who is fat” as the same meaning and they can be roughly translated as “fat person” in English. Here are more examples.

私わたしは太ふとった人ひとが好すき（なんだ / なんです）。
I like a fat person.

着き物ものを着きた人ひとが歩あるいて（いる / います）。
A person who wears a kimono is walking.

大おおきいかばんを持もった人ひとが（いる / います）。
There is a person who has a big bag.

3. Nouns Treated as Adjectives

先生せんせいだった田た中なかさん: Tanaka-san who was a teacher
医い者しゃだった井上いのうえさん: Inoue-san who was a doctor
宝たから物ものだったおもちゃ: Toy which was a treasure

This is part of Japanese relative clauses. Only when the tense in relative clauses is past, you can directly connect nouns with nouns.

先生せんせいだった田た中なかさんは頭あたまがいい（です）。
Tanaka-san who was a teacher is smart.

医い者しゃだった井上いのうえさんは金かね持もち（だ / です）。
Inoue-san who was a doctor is rich.

これが宝たから物ものだったおもちゃ（だ / です）。
This is the toy which was my treasure.

Summary

You can directly connect the ta-form with nouns in relative clauses and こと・の in nominalization.
Past-adjectives require facts that constant states have changed.
Verbs which express resultant states can be treated as adjectives.
Nouns in past tense can be connected with nouns in relative clauses.

Although you have learned several grammatical points here, you can place a priority on the No.3 in the summary. That’s one of the highest frequently used expressions in Japanese. Actually, the ta-form still has another important function, which expresses discovery and recall. Next, you will learn the last function of the ta-form.