I can describe a person and a thing — what kind, what color, “very”, “but”, “not” — and ask “what kind?” and “which?”
Qanday? What kind?
Qanday? What kind?
An adjective (a word for “what kind”) goes before the noun, as in English, and never changes: yangi uy — a new house, yangi uylar — new houses. Only the noun takes -lar.
When the adjective is the point of the sentence (“I'm happy”), it goes at the end and takes the personal ending, like a job: Men baxtliman, sen aqllisan, siz mehribonsiz. The third person has no ending: U aqlli.
• juda — “very”: juda chiroyli
• lekin — “but”: eski, lekin toza
• “not” — emas: yangi emas, baxtli emasman
Questions: qanday? — “what kind?” (in conversation also qanaqa?), qaysi? — “which?”: Qaysi kitob? — Yangi kitob.
English “old” is two Uzbek words: eski for a thing, qari for a person. Pairs of opposites are in the table.
Common mistakes:
• ×yangilar uylar → yangi uylar
• ×Men baxtli → Men baxtliman
• ×eski odam (about age) → qari odam
Where the adjective goes
Before a noun it doesn't change; at the end it takes a personal ending.
| Position | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| before the noun, one | katta shahar | a big city |
| before the noun, more than one | katta shaharlar | big cities |
| at the end + “I” | Men yoshman | I'm young |
| at the end + “you” | Siz yoshsiz | you're young |
| at the end, “he, she” | U yosh | he's young / she's young |
| “not” | U yosh emas | he isn't young / she isn't young |
Opposites
The four words on the right and muhim are for recognition only.
| Word | Opposites |
|---|---|
| yangi — new | eski — old (of a thing) |
| uzun — long | qisqa — short |
| baland — high, tall | past — low |
| oson — easy | qiyin — difficult |
| katta — big | kichik — small |
| toza — clean | iflos — dirty |
| chiroyli — beautiful | xunuk — ugly |
| qiziqarli — interesting | zerikarli — boring |
| yosh — young | qari — old (of a person) |
| muhim — important | — |
Lesson notes
Qanday? What kind?
An adjective (a word for “what kind”) goes before the noun, as in English, and never changes: yangi uy — a new house, yangi uylar — new houses. Only the noun takes -lar.
When the adjective is the point of the sentence (“I'm happy”), it goes at the end and takes the personal ending, like a job: Men baxtliman, sen aqllisan, siz mehribonsiz. The third person has no ending: U aqlli.
• juda — “very”: juda chiroyli
• lekin — “but”: eski, lekin toza
• “not” — emas: yangi emas, baxtli emasman
Questions: qanday? — “what kind?” (in conversation also qanaqa?), qaysi? — “which?”: Qaysi kitob? — Yangi kitob.
English “old” is two Uzbek words: eski for a thing, qari for a person. Pairs of opposites are in the table.
Common mistakes:
• ×yangilar uylar → yangi uylar
• ×Men baxtli → Men baxtliman
• ×eski odam (about age) → qari odam
Ranglar: colors
A color is an adjective too: it goes before the noun and never changes. qizil sumka — a red bag, qizil sumkalar — red bags.
To ask about a color: Bu qanday rang? — Bu sariq. Or with the endings you know: Uyingizning rangi qanday? — Oq. (What color is your house? — White.)
koʻk is blue, dark or light. A green thing is yashil. For tea and grass Uzbeks say koʻk — more on that later.
Two colors are for recognition only: jigarrang — brown, kulrang — gray. Both hide the word rang.
Common mistakes:
• ×qizillar sumkalar → qizil sumkalar
• ×koʻk sumka = “a green bag” → yashil sumka