Nihongo Notes

"...n ja nai deshoo ka" meaning "it seams to me ..."

Mr. Mori, the director of the company, showed a plan submitted by a colleague of Mr. Lerner and Mr. Tanaka and asked them their opinion of it. Mr. Lerner glanced through the plan and was going to say
    Taihen ii to omoimasu.
    (I think it is very good.)
When Mr. Tanaka said
    Nakanaka ii n ja nai deshoo ka.
Mr. Lerner understood that Mr. Tanaka also approved of the plan, but he wondered what implication ...n ja nai deshoo ka has in this case.
...n ja nai deshoo ka shows the speakers reserve in expressing his opinion. For instance,
    Ii n ja nai deshoo ka.
means " I should think it is good." It does not mean "It is not good." In the same way
    Iku n ja nai deshoo ka.
means "It seams to me that he is going to go."
Thus, ... n ja nai deshoo ka can be replaced by ... to omoimasu as far as the substantial meaning of the statement is concerned, as in
    Ii to omoimasu.
    Ii n ja nai deshoo ka.
although ... n ja nai deshoo ka sounds more reserved.
When preceded by nouns and noun-like adjectives (na adjectives), ... nan ja na deshoo ka is used as in
    Kore, Yamada-san no nimotsu nan ja nai deshoo ka.
    (This might be Mr. Yamada's luggage.)

    Ano hito, byooki nan ja nai deshoo ka.
    (I'm afraid he is sick.)

In this type of sentance, the "da" of "...da to omoimasu" changes to "na" as in
    ...byooki da to omoimasu.
    ...byooki nan ja nai deshoo ka.
Follow this link for an index of Nihongo Notes
Nihongo Notes is taken from a series of columns that appeared in The Japan Times
written by Osamu and Nobuko Mizutani They are not designed to teach Japanese, so much
as they are to better one's Japanese.

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