This adds to adjectives. It makes them into nouns. It shows how much or what kind something is. Think of English words like 'goodness' or 'height'.
い-Adjective [stem] + さPrimary
な-Adjective + さ
This adds to adjectives. It makes them into nouns. It shows how much or what kind something is. Think of English words like 'goodness' or 'height'.
この山の高さはどのくらいですか？
What is the height of this mountain?
彼の優しさには本当に感動した。
I was truly moved by his kindness.
この問題の難しさは、思った以上ではなかった。
The difficulty of this problem was not as great as I had thought.
この曲のエモさが若者に受けているらしい。
It seems the 'emo-ness' of this song is popular with young people.
都会の便利さと田舎の静かさ、どっちも捨てがたいね。
The convenience of the city and the quietness of the countryside... it's hard to give up either, isn't it?
This form is very common. People often use it with new words. This is especially true for young people. It helps them talk about how much something has a new quality. For example, 'emo-ness' or 'yabai-ness'.
〜さ is different from 〜み. 〜さ talks about a quality you can measure. For example, 'weight' or 'heat level'. 〜み talks about a feeling you have inside. For example, 'seriousness' or 'a feeling of warmth'. Both 悲しさ and 悲しみ mean 'sadness'. But 悲しさ is just the quality of being sad. 悲しみ is the feeling of sadness inside you.
Don't use this when you want to say something is 'not fun' in a simple way. For example, don't say 楽しなさ for 'it is not fun'. You can add 〜さ to the negative form of an adjective. This makes a noun about 'not having a quality'. Take an adjective like 'not interesting'. It becomes 'the state of not being interesting'. Another example is 'not fun'. It becomes 'the lack of fun'. This helps you talk about how much something is missing a quality.
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