Negative Verbs
In English, negative sentences are marked by the helping verb "not." Since the Japanese don't use helping verbs like we do, they instead change the ending of their verb. The suffix for the negative is "nai."
RU Verbs
First, for RU verbs, we need the stem of the verb. So, just remove the final "ru." Then we simply add the negative suffix "nai." Here are some examples.
Vocab
miru = to watch, to see neru = to sleep
TEREBI = TV, television beddo= bed
BIDEO = video tori = bird
I do not eat sushi.
"I" is our subject in this case so we translate it as "watashi" and add the subject marker "wa" after it. Second, we find the object. The object here is "sushi." "Sushi" becomes "sushi." Then we add the object marker "o" after it. So far we have "watashi wa sushi o." Now we have our verb. "Eat" would be "taberu" but we want the negative of "taberu." So we get the stem by removing the final "ru." Now, we add on "nai" to our stem "tabe" and we get our negative verb "tabenai." That wasn't so hard, was it?
Watashi wa sushi o tabenai.
Birds don't sleep in beds.
Our subject here is "birds." "Bird" is "tori" in Japanese. It is the subject so it is followed by "wa." "In beds" is translated as "beddo de." Remember the postposition "de" from the first chatper? It can mean both "in" or "at" depending on context. So "beddo de" means "in beds." "To sleep" is "neru" in Japanese. The negative is made by removing the final "ru" and adding "nai." So our sentence is
Tori wa beddo de nenai.
Ano hito wa TEREBI o minai.
Now the other way. First, our subject is "ano hito" and let's assume it's a girl. So we translate it as "she." Second, we have to find our verb. "Minai" is our verb. It's actually the negative of "miru" which means "to watch" or "to see." After that, we can add our object "TEREBI" which means "TV." I write in in capitol letters because it would be written in the square Japanese syllabry katakana, instead of the standard syllabry hiragana, because it's an import word.
She doesn't watch TV.
U Verbs
For U verbs, first we need to get to the stem, so remove the final "u." Then we add the negative suffix "-anai." There's an "-a" before "nai" because every consonant needs to be followed by a vowel and since we removed the final "-u," whatever consonant that preceded it is now without a vowel. In the case of verbs ending only in "-u" with no preceeding consonant (such as "kau"), we instead add "wanai" instead of "-anai."
Vocab
hanasu = to speak tobu = to jump, to fly
nihon-go = Japanese (language) tatsu = to stand up
eigo = English (language) suwaru = to sit down
de = in [a language] (postposition) inu = dog
neko = cat
kaku = to write, to draw kau = buy
egaku = to draw uru = sell
e = picture KONPYUUTA = computer
tegami = letter kuruma = car
jitensha = bicycle
oyogu = to swim
PUURU = (swiming) pool
tobi-komu = to jump in(to)
I don't speak English.
Our subject here is "I" which translates to "watashi" and we add "wa" as usual. Our object here is "English." "English" is translated as "eigo" in Japanese and we add our object marker "o" after it. Our verb here is "don't speak" which is the negative of "to speak." "To speak" is "hanasu" in Japanese. To make it negative, find the stem by removing the final "-u." Then we add "-anai." So we have "hanasanai" for our verb.
Watashi wa eigo o hanasanai.
Dogs don't fly.
"Dogs" is the subject and is translated as "inu." Since it's the subject, we add "wa" after it. We don't have an object in this sentence, so we go onto the verb. Our verb is "don't fly." The Japanese verb for "to fly" is "tobu." The negative of that is made by removing the final "-u" and adding "-anai."
Inu wa tobanai.
Tori wa oyoganai.
Our subject here is "tori" which means "birds." Again, there is no object in this sentence. "Oyoganai" is the negative of the verb "oyogu" which means "to swim." So "oyoganai" would mean "to not swim."
Birds do not swim.
JIIN-san wa jitensha o kawanai.
"JIIN-san" is our subject. "JIIN" is how you'd spell the English name "Jean" in Japanese. The "-san" here isn't translated since it's a first name, and we don't use "Mr." with first names in English. Our verb here is "kawanai." Now if we remove the "-anai" from "kawanai" we get "kaw-" which you may notice doesn't end in a "-u." Remember our rule that for verbs ending in a lone "-u" with no preceding consonant, you add "-wanai" instead of "-anai." So this is actually the negative of "kau" which means "to buy." The object is "jitensha" which translates as "a bike." "Kawanai" here can be translated as "doesn't buy" but that doesn't make much sence here, so we translate it as a future event in English. Remember, the non-past tense is used for future actions as well as habitual.
He won't buy a bike.
Semi-Irregular Verbs
So far we only know about two semi-irregular verbs. "Iku" is not irregular in the negative and so it acts just like a normal U verb. But "aru" (there is/are) which I talked about in the last lesson is irregular in the past tense. "Aru" becomes the word "nai." "Nai" is actually an I adjective and it's called the negative adjective because it's the only adjective that has an inherent negative meaning. Again, I will show you how "aru" works in the chapter Locative Verbs and Nouns.
Irregualr Verbs
Japanese Negative English
Kuru Konai to not come
Suru Shinai to not do
Vocab
unten suru = to drive
ryouri suru = to cook
I won't come to the meeting.
The subject here is "I" so we translate it to "watashi" and add "wa." "To the meeting" is translated as "kaigi ni." Lastly, we look at the verb. "Won't come" is actually a future negative in English, which is translated simply by using the negative non-past tense in Japanese. So "won't come" is translated simply with the negative of "kuru," "konai."
Watashi wa kaigi ni konai.
He doesn't drive a car.
"He" is translated as "ano hito" and we add "wa" after it as always. The object in this sentence is "car." "Car" is translated as "kuruma." The verb here is "doesn't drive." "To drive" in Japanese is translated as "unten suru." "Unten" is a kanji word that means "driving." When the suffix "suru" is added to it, it means "to drive." We leave "unten" alone and conjugate the "suru" at the end. There are thousands of words that work with "suru" like this in Japanese, making "suru" the most common verb in Japanese. The negative of "suru" is "shinai" so our verb is "unten shinai."
Ano hito wa kuruma o unten shinai.
The copula
The copula in Japanese is irregular. Remember how "da" is a contraction of "de aru." There is a bit of tricky grammar involved here, but it isn't important to understand this now. In the end, the negative of "da" becomes "de wa nai." The "wa" here is the same as the subject marker "wa" which is important to know when you finish learning hiragana. In colloquial speech, "de wa" is often contracted to "ja" so the negative copula becomes "ja nai."
I am not a cat.
"I" is translated as "watashi" and we add "wa" as always. Second, we look for our predicate which is "cat" in this sentence. "Cat" is translated to "neko" but remember that we do not add a postposition after a predicate. Lastly, we add the negative copula "de wa nai."
Watashi wa neko de wa nai.
Akira-san wa sensei ja nai.
The subject in this case is "Akira-san" which is translated as "Akira." The verb is "ja nai" which means "isn't." After that, our predicate is "sensei" which translates to "teacher." So in all we get
Akira isn't a teacher.
I adjectives
For I adjectives, first we remove the final "i" and add "ku." This is actually the adverbial form that we learned in the lesson adverbs. After that, we add the word "nai" which is actually the negative of our semi-irregular verb "aru." "Aru" means "to be" and "nai" means "not to be."
Apples are not tastey.
The subject of this sentence is "apples" which gets translated as "ringo." After that, we have the adjective "are not tastey." "Oishii" means "tastey" so we need to make the negative of "oishii." First, remove the final "i" and add on "ku" to make it an adverb. Then add the negative adjective "nai" after that.
Ringo wa oishiku nai.
Well, that's all for negatives. Next up is the past tense. The past tense is probably the hardest tense to learn, but with some practice, you shouldn't have much trouble with it. Once you've learned it, the past is one of the most useful tenses there is.
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