Japanese Grammar In Its Natural Habitat
Wild Nihongo!
すきだ

すきだ

すきだ Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: な-Adjective

Essential Meaning: To like

Construction: な-Adjective

Notes:

  • すきだ (好すきだ in kanji) is a common adjective that means “To like“. In English, the act of liking or disliking is conveyed with verbs (e.g. “I like pie“; “I dislike soup“), but in Japanese this is conveyed with adjectives instead.
  • 好すきだ generally requires the ~は~が construction (i.e. “XはYが好すきだ”), where the experiencer is marked by は and the thing that is liked is marked by が. However, in subordinate clauses both the experiencer and the liked thing are generally marked by が.
    • E.g. 私わたしがステーキが好すきなことはみんな知しっている。[Everyone knows the fact that I like steak.] The experiencer of the subordinate clause (i.e. 私わたし) is marked by が in this case.
    • E.g. ジョンが好すきなスポーツは野球やきゅうです。[The sport that John likes is baseball.] The experiencer of the subordinate clause (i.e. ジョン) is marked by が in this case.
  • 大だい can be affixed before 好すきだ to add emphasis and express the idea of “Like a lot“. The antonym of 好すきだ and 大だい好すきだ are 嫌きらいだ and 大だい嫌きらいだ, respectively.

Example Sentences:

私わたしはステーキが好すきだ。[I like steak.]

僕ぼくは野球やきゅうが好すきだ。[I like baseball.]

ジョンソンさんはジャズが大だい好すきだ。[Mr. Johnson loves jazz.]

WILD Examples:

At 1:38, the chorus begins with this line: 大好だいすきだったけど彼女かのじょがいたなんて [I loved you, but it turned out that you had a girlfriend.]
Listen to this line at 2:11: 君きみの匂においが好すきだった、甘あまい匂においがした [I liked the way you smelled, you smelled sweet]

***YouTube videos may be region-locked depending on your country of origin. If you experience issues, please try using a VPN set to a United States IP address.***