Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 4: 13/13

くないNot (Adjective)

い-Adjectives, whether positive or negative, cannot be used with だ

Structure

［い］Adjective［く］+ ない

Examples:
おもしろく + ない
新(あたら)しく + ない

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Adjective

  • Word Type

    Auxiliary Verb

  • Register

    Standard

About い-Adjectives くない

The negative form of い-Adjectives in Japanese is created by using the conjunctive form of the adjective, followed by ない. conjunctive form just means 'agglutinative', or 'conjunctive' in Japanese. For い-Adjectives, this conjunctive form is created by removing い, and replacing it with く.

The ない used with い-Adjectives is considered to be a different word to the ない used with verbs. When used with い-Adjectives, ない itself is also an い-Adjective. This means that it follows the same rules as regular い-Adjectives. Due to ません (the polite negative form) being an auxiliary verb, it cannot be conjugated with い-Adjectives in the same way as verbs.

As can be seen here, you must first add the verb ある, and then conjugate it into its negative form using the auxiliary verb ません. This is how the polite negative is created.

Caution

As with regular い-Adjectives, you cannot use だ after ない. です is acceptable to create a semi-polite form, but is best used in spoken language only.

Examples

--:--

    暑(あつ)くないです。

    It is not hot.

    今日(きょう)は寒(さむ)くない。

    It is not cold today.

    これは楽(たの)しくないです。

    This is not fun.

    新(あたら)しくないコンピューター。

    A computer that is not new.

    それは安(やす)くないです。

    That is not cheap.

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い-Adjectives くない – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (3 in total)

  • BreadmanNin

    BreadmanNin

    Hi everyone. A sentence from this grammar point popped up in my reviews today, and I stuck です on the end. This was marked wrong.

    afbeelding699×194 14.8 KB
  • Vaminta

    Vaminta

    It says “negative, standard” i.e. not polite. I forget to check and make this mistake all the time though

  • BreadmanNin

    BreadmanNin

    Using grammar patterns that are too polite or too casual are the number one thing that Bunpro gives warning messages for instead of marking wrong, so if that is really what the problem is here, that would be all the more reason to add a warning message in this case.

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