How does the adnomial adjective 小さな differ in meaning and use in sentences compared to the standard adjective form 小さい? Where would you put each of these in a sentence?
I’m using Imabi.net’s explanation (http://www.imabi.net/adnominaladjectives.htm) and while I like how thorough this site is, this explanation isn’t sticking with me as well as most of the others are.
That page has a section devoted to 小さい/小さな with example sentences. I don’t really see how we can do better…?
Mmm I guess I read through it too quickly, and now its making a bit more sense, still I was kind of just hoping for a simpler explanation of how adnomials differ from adjectives in general.
It says that い adjective forms are objective and used with concrete things, generally, and な adjective forms are subjective and used with abstract things, generally.
I wasn’t familiar with that particular nuance before reading the page, and don’t think we can do much better.
I don’t really get it from skimming the link you sent, but I’ll try to read through the page again so I can learn something.
However, the real reason I’m replying is to say how happy I am that I was able to correctly read 小さな in your original post, and it’s all because I just learned 小さい in my WaniKani lessons. 
Thanks WaniKani, I’m really learning this stuff!!!
On the other hand, Google gives a lot more results for 小さな木 compared to 小さい木. My impression so far was that you use 小さな in a non-formal, less emotionally-affected setting, and 小さい for formal objectiveness. Might be wrong though, so grain of salt.
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