Basic negative sentences such as “I am not hungry” are contructed in Japanese by changing the ending of the verb to the negative form. Adjectives also have changes in their endings to become negative.
Verbs ~nai / ~masen
Verbs are changed to their negative form by changing the end of the verb. For polite forms, this is done by replacing the -masu word ending with -masen. For the plain form, it is done as described by the table below.
Plain Forms
| Negative Present/Future | Negative Past |
|
|---|---|---|
Godan Verbs |
||
| To write | kaku -> kaka + nai = kakanai | kakanai -> kakanakatta |
| To read | yomu -> yoma + nai = yomanai | yomanai -> yomanakatta |
| To wait | matsu -> mata + nai = matanai |
matanai-> matanakatta |
Ichidan Verbs |
||
| To eat | taberu -> tabenai | tabenai -> tabenakatta |
| To look | miru -> minai | minai -> minakatta |
Irregular Verbs |
||
| To do | suru -> shinai | shinai -> shinakatta |
| To come | kuru -> konai | konai -> konakatta |
Polite Forms
| Negative Present/Future | Negative Past |
|
|---|---|---|
Godan Verbs |
||
| To write | kakimasu -> kakimasen | kakimasen -> kakimasendeshita |
| To read | yomimasu -> yomimasen | yomimasen -> yomimasendeshita |
| To wait | machimasu -> machimasen | machimasen -> machimasendeshita |
Ichidan verbs |
||
| To eat | tabemasu -> tabemasen | tabemasen -> tabemasendeshita |
| To look | mimasu -> mimasen | mimasen -> mimasendeshita |
Irregular Verbs |
||
| To do | shimasu -> shimasen | shimasen -> shimasendeshita |
| To come |
kimasu -> kimasen | kimasen -> kimasendeshita |
The special word Desu – Dewa Arimasen
The word desu is similar to a verb, but is actually something called copula. The following table shows how to construct the negative versions of the copula da/desu. There are two versions of the negative tense of desu. Both can be used in most situations, but the versions based on ja sounds a bit more causual than dewa.
| Negative Present/Future | Negative Past |
|
|---|---|---|
| Plain Copula (da) | da -> ja nai / dewa nai |
ja nai -> ja nakatta dewa nai -> dewa nakatta |
| Polite copula (desu) | desu -> ja arimasen / dewa arimasen |
ja arimasen -> ja arimasendeshita dewa arimasen -> dewa arimasendeshita |
Adjectives
As you can read in the chapter Adjectives, there are two kinds of adjectives in Japanese. The -i adjectives and the-na adjectives. These two adjectives are handled differently when made negative.
-
You make -i adjectives negative by changing the -i ending to ~kunai.
-
You make -na adjectives negative by adding the negative form of desu to the end of the sentence.
Just note that when changing an -i adjective to negative form, you should keep the verb or desu in positive form..
| Negative Present/Future | Negative Past |
|
|---|---|---|
-i adjectives |
||
| Red | akai (desu) -> akakunai (desu) | akakakunai (desu) -> akakunakatta (desu) |
-na adjectives |
||
| beautiful | kirei (desu) -> kirei (dewa arimasen) |
kirei (deshita) -> kirei (dewa arimasendeshita) |
Examples
あの人は警察官でわありません。
Ano hito wa keisatsukan dewa arimasen.
That person is not a policeman.
私は寒くないです。
Watashi wa samukunai desu.
I am not (feeling) cold.
あの絵はきれいでわありません。
Ano e wa kirei dewa arimasen.
That painting is not beautiful.
Related posts:
4:53 pm on April 6th, 2012
hola soy percy y soy peruano y soy orgulloso de ser peruanoy nunca me senti enamorado de mi pais
10:37 am on December 14th, 2010
ricoleng-san,
The table is giving the plain negative and plain negative past forms. These are unrelated to the plain past form.
kaku: (I) write (plain present/future)
kaita: (I) wrote (plain past)
kakanai: (I) don’t write (plain negative)
kakanakatta: (I) didn’t write (plain negative past)
The rules for making the -ta/-da form are similar to the rules for making the -te/-de form. The rules for making the -nai and -nakatta forms are given on this page.
8:23 am on December 14th, 2010
Sorry, I couldn’t understand the first table.
In the group 1 verb.
Kaku >> Kaita (Past)
Yomu >> Yonda (Past)
2:09 pm on March 27th, 2009
I have updated the article a bit, including the tables. Hope it became more clear.
/Johan
5:04 pm on March 26th, 2009
I think the more confusing thing about the table is the entries in the first column, which should be “plain” and “polite” for each pair of rows.
Almost everyone I’ve talked to has been confused by this table the first time they looked at it, because they thought the “Group n verb” label applied only to the second row in each pair.
Ferdi-san, it is assumed that anyone looking at this already knows the plain past– so the two new forms being introduced are the negative and negative past, so it kind of makes sense to have them the last columns in the table. I don’t see why it is confusing this way if you look at the column headings.
4:44 pm on March 26th, 2009
could you please fix the table? so it’ll be present – present neg – past – past negative… it’s a bit confusing that way.
1:03 am on January 28th, 2009
The second line of the table is still listing inflections of the verb “kaku”, to write. These are the polite inflections, which are otherwise identical in meaning to the inflections above them. So “kakimasen”, for example, is the “normal polite” way of saying “kakanai.”
12:59 am on January 28th, 2009
There are basically two types of verbs in Japanese, plus two irregular verbs, suru and kuru, which do not fit into either category (these are labeled “Group 3″ in the table).
The verbs being called “Group 1″ in the table are usually known as godan verbs, or in texts written in English as “u-dropping” verbs. “Godan” has to do with the fact that these verbs have 5 (go) different stems, one for each vowel sound. Each stem is used with a variety of different endings. “u-dropping” has to do with how inflecting these verbs is often explained in roomaji (Roman letters), explanations which do not make sense when thinking in terms of Japanese syllables.
The verbs being called “Group 2″ in the table are usually known as ichidan verbs, or in texts written in English as “ru-dropping” verbs. “Ichidan” because each of these verbs has only one stem from which inflections are built, which is obtained from the dictionary form of the verb by dropping the last syllable “ru.”
The “Group” terminology is introduced on the first page on verbs in the Language Reference section of the site. Here is a link to it: http://www.studyjapanese.org/language-reference/verbs.
12:20 am on January 28th, 2009
um..what’s the verb at”group 1 verb
‘mean??