Negatives and yes-no questions in Japanese

Level A1

Negatives and yes-no questions in Japanese

In Japanese the verb always comes last, and small words called particles show who does what, so the order is "I coffee drink". "Not" isn't a separate word placed before the verb: it's a change to the verb's ending, ～ません (-masen) when polite and ～ない (-nai) with friends. Questions keep the same order and add か (ka), or just a rising voice. Each line is marked polite or casual, so you can see which form fits where.

The three words: はい (hai), いいえ (iie) and ない (nai)

  • はいyes
  • いいえno
  • ないnot

The verb goes last: 私は毎朝コーヒーを飲みます (watashi wa maiasa kōhī o nomimasu)

私はコーヒーを飲みます。

"Not" is in the verb's ending: 食べます (tabemasu) → 食べません (tabemasen), casual 飲まない (nomanai)

肉を食べません／ない。

Isn't: 学生じゃありません (gakusei ja arimasen), 遠くないです (tōku nai desu), 家にいません (ie ni imasen)

家にい／学生じゃ／遠くません／ありません／ないです。

Polite questions: the same sentence with か (ka) — 遠いですか (tōi desu ka)

肉を食べますか？

Casual questions: no か, just a rising voice — コーヒー、飲む？ (kōhī, nomu?)

コーヒー、飲む？

Answering with the verb: はい、います (hai, imasu) — いいえ、食べません (iie, tabemasen)

はい／いいえ、います／いません。

Answering "Aren't you hungry?": うん (un) means "that's right", not "yes"

In Japanese, はい (hai) or うん (un) agrees with the question as it was asked, and いいえ (iie) or ううん (uun) says it's wrong. So to お腹すいてないの？ (onaka suite nai no?, "Aren't you hungry?"), a friend who isn't hungry answers うん、すいてない (un, suite nai): "Right, I'm not hungry", where English says "No, I'm not".

It also works the other way round: to コーヒー、好きじゃないの？ (kōhī, suki ja nai no?, "Don't you like coffee?"), someone who loves coffee says ううん、好きだよ (uun, suki da yo), "That's wrong, I do like it". English speakers mix this up all the time, so always repeat the key word, like すいてない or 好きだ: it tells the truth even when はい and いいえ seem backwards.

Saying yes and no to offers: はい、お願いします (hai, onegai shimasu) — いいえ、けっこうです (iie, kekkō desu)

はい／いいえ、お願いします／けっこうです。

Offering a friend a coffee: casual speech, うん and ううん (un, uun)

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