3 questions: nan, irun, and kute

みんなさん、こんにちは！ I have a few questions that ive been a little stumped on recently. 1) "hajimete nan desu kedo." is one of the sentences from the lessons. I get that hajimete means first time, and i get the meaning behind desu kedo...but i cant seem to wrap my head around 'nan'. Is it just the colloquial version of 'na no'? 'na' making hajimete an adjective, and 'no' explaining your situation? Because if nan just means 'what' then im not too sure how its supposed to work. 2) '~te' and '~te iru': in the beginning lessons the ~te verb form was stressed that it was the ~ing equivalent in english of an action in progress...Now that ive gotten further into the lessons they have used '~te iru' for the same thing. Are these two interchangeable or is there subtle differences between them? 3) My understanding was that adjectives listed in a row before a noun had slight modifications: i-adjectives replace the last 'i' with 'kute', and 'na' adjectives have the 'na' replaced with 'de'. In the advanced lesson 2.5 there is a sentence "oshiri ni yasashii oukina fukafuka sadoru ga hoshii desuga." should yasashii be yasashikute? Or is it because yasashii is attached to oshiri that the adjectives arent being listed but just happen to be next to each other? たすけてくれてありがとうございます！ ダン

Teklis-san Konnichiwa! Thank you for your excellent questions. I will try my best to clarify them below :P 1. *~na __no__ desu* :arrow: *~na __n__ desu* The explanatory *'no'* can be shortened to *'n'*, changing the extension to *~n da* or *~n desu*. This occurs commonly in colloquial speech. The reason of this contraction is that *'no'* can sound quite stiff. What comes before *~n da* or *~n desu* can be any kind of complete sentence. For verb- and adjective sentences, this mean that dictionary form + *~n da* or *~n desu*. However for NOUN-type sentences the final *~desu* is replaced by *'na'*, and this is followed by *~n da* or *~n desu*. *'Na'* in such case serves as the verb _*"to be."*_ For example: __Verb__: *Taberu* :arrow: *Taberu __no__ desu.* :arrow: *Taberu-__n__ desu.* _(To eat --> It's that I eat)_ __I adjective__: *Kawaii* :arrow: *Kawaii __no__ desu.* :arrow: *Kawaii-__n__ desu.* _(Cute --> It's that it's cute)_ __NA adjective__: *Kirei na* :arrow: *Kirei na __no__ desu.* :arrow: *Kirei na-__n__ desu.* _(Beautiful --> It's that it's beautiful)_ __Noun__: *Nihon-jin* :arrow: *Nihon-jin desu.* :arrow: *Nihon-jin __na no__ desu.* :arrow: *Nihon-jin __na n__ desu.* _(Japanese --> I am Japanese. --> It's that I'm Japanese)_ :idea: Sometimes *~kedo* comes at the end of a sentence. This sometimes occurs when the speaker thinks his/her implied meaning is clear enough without having to finish the sentence. Also, the *~kedo* ending has the purpose of making the sentence feel softer or less abrupt. 2. A verb in its '*te-form*' by itself is NOT equivalent to the English *_~ing_* (continuous action). Using a *te-form* verb means that that verb describes the manner in which the following was done/is being done/will be done. A *te-form* does NOT have any tense of its own - tense is determined by what follows, such as *~iru*. :idea: The *'~te iru'* is the *te-form* of a verb plus *iru* - a two-verb combination used to express action in progress: _"am/is/are ~ing"_. 3. The sentence: *Oshiri ni yasashii ookina fukafuka sadoru * is very colloquial, and thus has omitted the "attachment" component between the adjectives *yasashii* and *ookii*. You could alternatively say: *Oshiri ni yasashikute ookina fukafuka sadoru *. In colloquial speech, both is acceptable. -Sayaka :P