100836
I have trouble understanding why "no" is used here instead of "na". For
example, on Tofugu they translate きれいな人 as "beautiful person" and きれいのヒント as
"beauty hints" or, basically "hints about beauty". In this vein, "futsuu no
hon" should mean something like "book about trivia/banality". Still, it is
translated as "(an) ordinary book". Is there something special about "futsuu"
that makes it behave as such?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T18:37:02.933
100833
2023-09-02T04:35:45.863
2023-09-02T04:35:45.863
9831
57409
question
particle-の adjectives na-adjectives
Why is 'ordinary book' translated as 普通の本 and not 普通な本
普通 is a noun with two meanings 'commonplace, ordinary' etc., or 'normal, the
norm'. Hence to make it an attribute of another noun, you would use the 普通の
construction. 奇麗 is and adjectival noun so is conjoined with な to a following
noun. Your example of 奇麗のヒント sounds like something from an advertisment for
beauty products or the like, and in that kind of context non-standard usages
are used for the very purpose of being distinctive. Normally, kirei is turned
into a noun by the addition of the -sa prefix, 奇麗さ.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T21:32:59.450
100835
2023-08-29T21:32:59.450
40564
100833
answer
Boundary between adjectival nouns (often called _na_ -adjectives) and pure
nouns is actually somehow fluent. Some words are used only with な, some words
are used only with の, and some words can be used with both of them.

Both "[普通](https://jisho.org/word/%E6%99%AE%E9%80%9A)の" and
"[普通](https://jisho.org/word/%E6%99%AE%E9%80%9A)な" are considered valid. The
former is used about 5 times more often according to Google.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-29T22:14:01.900
100836
2023-08-29T22:14:01.900
56758
100833
answer