い-adjectives with multiple personality disorder

In Japanese, there are exactly three い-adjectives which sometimes think they are な-adjectives when appearing in front of a noun. These adjecives are 大おおきい and 小ちいさい, which mean big and small respectively, and おかしい, which means funny or strange.

When we write these adjectives in front of a noun, we can write them in two ways, as shown in the table below.

Englishい-formな-form
A big car大おおきい 車くるま大おおきな 車くるま
A small car小ちいさい 車くるま小ちいさな 車くるま
A strange carおかしい 車くるまおかしな 車くるま

This behavior can only occur in front of a noun. In all other cases, these adjectives are treated as い-adjectives only.

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