Negating nouns and adjectives in Japanese

Level A1

Negating nouns and adjectives in Japanese

By the end of this lesson you can say that a description is wrong and give the right one: not a book but a chair, not big but small. You keep three words you already know, 本 (hon, book), 大きい (ōkii, big) and きれい (kirei, clean), and change only how each sentence ends. The ending depends on the kind of word, and that is the one thing to learn today.

A quick warm-up: です and ません

Say the first three lines aloud: これは本です (kore wa hon desu), "This is a book", これは大きいです (kore wa ōkii desu), "This one is big", and きれいです (kirei desu), "It's clean". All three end in です. The last line is a negative you may have met: コーヒーを飲みません (kōhī o nomimasen), "I don't drink coffee". That ません (masen) belongs to verbs, and 本, 大きい and きれい are not verbs, so they need another way to say "not".

The words you need: 本, 大きい, きれい and ない

ない (nai) is the new piece: it is the "not" inside both endings you will practise. 本 is a noun, while 大きい and きれい are adjectives. きれい's word card shows きれいな, because it belongs with the な adjectives, even though it ends in い. That な appears only before a noun, as in きれいな椅子 (kirei na isu, a clean chair), and never at the end of a sentence.

A guessing game with a picture card

Two classmates are playing a game: one holds a picture card, and the other tries to guess what is on it. A wrong guess gets いいえ (iie, no) and a negative; a right one gets はい (hai, yes). Listen once without reading, and notice how the end of each answer changes.

Nouns and きれい: the ending じゃないです

After a noun, replace です with じゃないです: 本です becomes 本じゃないです (hon ja nai desu), "It's not a book." きれい does exactly the same: きれいです becomes きれいじゃないです (kirei ja nai desu), "It's not clean." English puts "not" in the middle of the sentence, but here it comes after the word it denies, and the start stays as it was: これは本じゃないです. Keep the です: it makes the sentence polite.

本／きれいじゃないです

い adjectives: くないです

大きい works differently: take off the final い and add くないです, so 大きいです becomes 大きくないです (ōkiku nai desu), "It's not big." 小さい (chiisai, small) changes the same way, and so do most adjectives like it. Don't add the じゃ of the last section here: 大きいじゃないです does not mean "It's not big." The trap runs the other way too: きれいくないです is wrong, because the い of きれい is not an ending, so it stays in きれいじゃないです.

大きくないです

Side by side: what is and what isn't

Read each pair aloud. The start of the sentence stays the same and only the end changes. 本 and きれい swap です for じゃないです, and 大きい swaps いです for くないです. The word decides the ending, not the meaning: both pairs with an adjective say "not", yet they end differently.

Correcting a description: いいえ, then the right word

Each pair below has a wrong description and its correction. Start with いいえ, deny the wrong word, then say the right one: いいえ、大きくないです。小さいです (iie, ōkiku nai desu. chiisai desu), "No, it's not big. It's small." Here you don't need to repeat 椅子 (isu, chair), since everyone knows what you are talking about. The second sentence is an ordinary です sentence. If you have nothing to add, the negative alone is a complete answer, as in the last line.

To recognize: ではありません

In formal speech and in writing you may meet ではありません (de wa arimasen) where you have been saying じゃないです: これは本ではありません, "This is not a book." じゃ is the spoken, shortened form of では, and ありません is a verb, which is why it ends in ません. ではありません fits 本 and きれい, but not 大きい. You only need to recognize it for now: じゃないです is enough to speak politely.

Your turn: correct yourself

Choose a desk or a chair, at home or in a room in the World section, and cover the lines below. Say これは本です on purpose, then correct yourself with これは本じゃないです and the object's real name. Now imagine a friend says it is big and clean, and deny both. Check your sentences against the lines; if you chose a chair, say 椅子 where they say 机 (tsukue, desk).

In short: how the sentence ends

WordIt isIt is not
本(ほん)本(ほん)です本(ほん)じゃないです
きれいきれいですきれいじゃないです
大(おお)きい大(おお)きいです大きくないです
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