German to Japanese: an adjective ending can express past time instead of noun agreement
German noun agreement is not a guide to Japanese adjective type
German adjectives can agree with nouns in gender, number, and case. A Japanese translation uses different grammatical categories. MLC Japanese Language School distinguishes i-adjectives from na-adjectives and explains that the latter require な before a noun in the basic pattern. The choice does not come from whether the German noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter.
The school’s example しずかなへや describes a quiet room. The な connects that kind of descriptive word to the noun; it does not identify the room’s grammatical sex or translate a particular German article ending. A German reference to a quiet room and another to a quiet office should therefore not cause arbitrary switching between Japanese adjective classes merely because their German nouns have different genders.
A change in the descriptive word can carry a time distinction
MLC contrasts やすいです with やすかったです for cheap and was cheap. Here the adjective’s form changes to help express time. A German sentence usually expresses that contrast through the predicate containing a present or past form of sein, while the descriptive adjective need not acquire a corresponding past suffix. Expecting a one-word equivalent of the German auxiliary can therefore miss information already carried by the Japanese adjective.
Compare the source meanings “The ticket is cheap” and “The ticket was cheap.” They identify the same item and property but make different temporal claims. A Japanese translation that preserves the same positive present form for both can erase that contrast. Conversely, an unfamiliar-looking ending on the Japanese adjective is not evidence that the noun has been changed or that a new adjective with a different lexical meaning has appeared.
Negative and past meanings must be combined in the target pattern
The same lesson supplies やすくないです for not cheap and やすくなかったです for was not cheap. The negative-past combination is a grammatical construction, rather than a German-style separate nicht placed beside an otherwise unchanged descriptive word. Its target form should preserve both the denial and the earlier time.
A German message meaning “The ticket was not cheap” differs from “The ticket is not cheap” and from “The ticket was cheap.” All three can appear in a discussion of travel costs, but only the first combines past reference and negation. MLC separately shows na-adjective predicates using their own polite negative and past constructions; its two adjective classes cannot simply exchange endings. It also cautions that a word ending in the sound i is not necessarily an i-adjective, giving examples such as kirei. Therefore the German adjective’s meaning, the Japanese lexical class, and the sentence’s time and polarity must be resolved separately. Correct noun identification alone does not guarantee that the target says whether a price was acceptable now or on an earlier occasion.
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