Linking adjectives: くて・で
Adj-い → くて／Adj-な → で
い-adjective: い → くて; な-adjective and noun: + で. Only the last element takes です.
In short
To say “… and …”, you link the adjectives: an い-adjective takes くて (やすくて おいしい = cheap and good), a な-adjective takes で (しずかで きれい = quiet and pretty).
- この 店は 安くて おいしいです。kono mise wa yasukute oishii desuThis restaurant is cheap and good.
- へやは しずかで ひろいです。heya wa shizuka de hiroi desuThe room is quiet and spacious.
- かれは やさしくて おもしろい 人です。kare wa yasashikute omoshiroi hito desuHe's a kind and funny person.
The basics
To chain two adjectives (“small and cute”), you can't use と. You put the first one in a linking form: くて for い-adjectives, で for な-adjectives and nouns.
| Type | Linking form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| い-adjective | い → くて | やすくて おいしい |
| いい | よくて | てんきが よくて あたたかい |
| な-adjective | ＋ で | しずかで きれい |
| noun | ＋ で | 学生で 二十さい |
In practice
Only the last element carries the tense and the politeness: it's the one that takes です, でした, and so on.
- この 店は やすくて おいしいです。kono mise wa yasukute oishii desuThis restaurant is cheap and good.
- へやは しずかで きれいでした。heya wa shizuka de kirei deshitaThe room was quiet and clean.
- 田中さんは 先生で、三十さいです。tanaka-san wa sensei de, sanjussai desuMr Tanaka is a teacher and is thirty years old.
Qualities that go together
くて／で links ideas of the same kind (two good qualities, or two bad ones). To contrast (“cheap but bad”), you use が or けど, covered later.
Common mistakes
- Linking two adjectives with と: と only links nouns.
- Saying いくて: it's よくて.
- Putting です in the middle: “やすいです、おいしいです” is clunky, you say やすくて おいしいです.
5 exercises on this point
Particles to choose, sentences to put back in order, translations: marked straight away, then reviewed at the right time. This JLPT N5 point is on the Mita Line (Positions and sizes) of the Tokyo subway.