How does "suku" (empty) become "suite"?


Just started learning Japanese two weeks ago. I have so many questions. If my
question sounds a little silly, please bear with me. I just learned that
adjectives + desu and verb + imasu. But how do I know if a word is verb or
adj. without checking dictionary every time. For example: kibun ga warui desu
(is sick); onaka ga suite imasu (is hungry) Here, the locations of "warui"and
"suite" in the phrase look the same to me. Literal translation is "the feeling
is bad" and "the stomach is empty". When I try to memorize which phrase ending
up with "desu", and which ending up with "imasu", I got very confused. Someone
told me the original form of "suite" is "suku". Is there any rules of verb
transforming to adj.?

Thanks!




After understanding the basic grammar, you can usually tell if an unfamiliar
word is a verb or an adjective just by looking at how it's used in the
sentence, including its conjugation pattern. You already know _masu_ only
attaches to a verb! (Of course you can do the same thing in English, too. By
looking at "You have narvolooned", you can tell _narvoloon_ is used as a verb
even though such a word actually does not exist.)

Please not that the very literal translation of "Onaka ga suite imasu" is
"(My) stomach has emptied" rather than "stomach is empty" or "I am hungry".
There is no (transformed) adjective in this Japanese sentence. That is, in
English, an adjective is normally used to express this idea, but in Japanese,
a verb is used instead. (The opposite is also possible. You may already know
you have to use a na-adjective to say "I like cats" in Japanese.) _Imasu_ is a
subsidiary verb that only attaches to the [te-
form](https://kawakawalearningstudio.com/all/exactly-te-form-japanese/) of a
verb, and _suite_ is the te-form of the intransitive verb _suku_ meaning "to
become empty" or "to be less crowded".




"Suku" means "become empty". "Suiteimasu" is the _progessive tense_ of "suku"
and means "is empty" here. So it is still a verb; there is only an adjective
in the english translation. This is quite common by the way. For example "I am
tired" would be "tsukaremashita", which is the past tense of the verb
"tsukareru" and means "became tired".

To understand how "suku" becomes "suite", you should look up the conjugation
rules for the te-form of verbs.

