When can adjectives be used with the particle "no"?


Some adjectives are used like this:

  * [次]{つぎ}の[世界]{せかい} "tsugi no sekai" (next world)
  * [黄色]{きいろ}の[車]{くるま} "kiiro no kuruma" (yellow car)

and others are used liked this: かわいい[車]{くるま} "kawaī kuruma".

Though kiiro can also be used thus: [黄色]{きいろ}い[車]{くるま}"kiiroi kuruma".

When can I use an adjective with "no"? Is it always or only in some special
cases?




Grammatically, you can _never_ use an adjective with の. You can only use の
with nouns. Your confusion arose because the parts of speech do not always
correspond between English and Japanese: 次 is a noun, but "next" is an
adjective.

Similarly, all colors in English are adjectives, but all colors in Japanese
are nouns (except for six that have adjective counterparts, namely 赤い, 青い, 白い,
黒い, 黄色い, and 茶色い). You can't say 灰色い because it only exists as a noun, not as
an adjective (a fact you just have to memorize).

You can use nouns to modify other nouns in English, too (and this is probably
true of most other languages). _Health Department_ (or _Department of Health_
) is an example in English: "health" modifies "department" and specifies the
kind of department.




Grammatically, you can _never_ use an adjective with の. You can only use の
with nouns. Your confusion arose because the parts of speech do not always
correspond between English and Japanese: 次 is a noun, but "next" is an
adjective.

Similarly, all colors in English are adjectives, but all colors in Japanese
are nouns (except for six that have adjective counterparts, namely 赤い, 青い, 白い,
黒い, 黄色い, and 茶色い). You can't say 灰色い because it only exists as a noun, not as
an adjective (a fact you just have to memorize).

You can use nouns to modify other nouns in English, too (and this is probably
true of most other languages). _Health Department_ (or _Department of Health_
) is an example in English: "health" modifies "department" and specifies the
kind of department.

