Negative Verbs
Now that we've seen how to declare things and perform actions with verbs, we want to be able to say the negative. In other words, we want to say that such-and-such action was not performed. This is done by conjugating the verb to the negative form just like the state-of-being for nouns and adjectives. However, the rules are a tad more complicated.
Conjugating verbs into the negative
Vocabulary
- ある (u-verb) - to exist (inanimate)
- いる (ru-verb) - to exist (animate)
- 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) - to eat
- 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) - to buy
- 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) - to wait
- する (exception) - to do
- 来る 【く・る】 (exception) - to come
- 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) - to see
- 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) - to sleep
- 起きる 【お・きる】 (ru-verb) - to wake; to occur
- 考える 【かんが・える】 (ru-verb) - to think
- 教える 【おし・える】 (ru-verb) - to teach; to inform
- 出る 【で・る】 (ru-verb) - to come out
- 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) - to wear
- 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) - to speak
- 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) - to ask; to listen
- 泳ぐ 【およ・ぐ】 (u-verb) - to swim
- 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) - to play
- 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) - to drink
- 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) - to go home
- 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) - to die
- お金 【お・かね】 - money
- 私 【わたし】 - me, myself, I
- 猫 【ねこ】 - cat
We will now make use of the verb classifications we learned in the last section to define the rules for conjugation. But before we get into that, we need to cover one very important exception to the negative conjugation rules: 「ある」.
- ある (u-verb) - to exist (inanimate)
- いる (ru-verb) - to exist (animate)
「ある」 is an u-verb used to express existence of inanimate objects. The equivalent verb for animate objects (such as people or animals) is 「いる」, which is a normal ru-verb. For example, if you wanted to say that a chair is in the room, you would use the verb 「ある」, but if you wanted to say that a person is in the room, you must use the verb 「いる」 instead. These two verbs 「ある」 and 「いる」 are quite different from all other verbs because they describe existence and are not actual actions. You also need to be careful to choose the correct one based on animate or inanimate objects.
Anyway, the reason I bring it up here is because the negative of 「ある」 is 「ない」 (meaning that something does not exist). The conjugation rules for all other verbs are listed below as well as a list of example verbs and their negative forms.
＊ = exceptions particular to this conjugation
- For ru-verbs: Drop the 「る」 and attach 「ない」
Example: 食べる+ ない = 食べない - ＊For u-verbs that end in 「う」: Replace 「う」 with 「わ」 and attach 「ない」
Example: 買う+ わ + ない = 買わない - For all other u-verbs: Replace the u-vowel sound with the a-vowel equivalent and attach 「ない」
Example: 待つ+ た = 待たない - Exceptions:
- する → しない
- くる → こない
- ＊ある → ない
| ru-verb | u-verb | exception |
|---|---|---|
| 見る → 見ない | 話す → 話さない | する → しない |
| 食べる → 食べない | 聞く → 聞かない | くる → こない |
| 寝る → 寝ない | 泳ぐ → 泳がない | ＊ある → ない |
| 起きる → 起きない | 遊ぶ → 遊ばない | |
| 考える → 考えない | 待つ → 待たない | |
| 教える → 教えない | 飲む → 飲まない | |
| 出る → 出ない | ＊買う → 買わない | |
| 着る → 着ない | 帰る → 帰らない | |
| いる → いない | 死ぬ → 死なない |
Examples
Here are the example sentences from the last section conjugated to the negative form.
- アリスは食べない。
As for Alice, does not eat. - ジムが遊ばない。
Jim is the one that does not play. - ボブもしない。
Bob also does not do. - お金がない。
There is no money. (lit: Money is the thing that does not exist.) - 私は買わない。
As for me, not buy. - 猫はいない。
There is no cat. (lit: As for cat, does not exist.)
I don't understand why 帰る is
I don't understand why 帰る is an U verb and not a RU verb, if it end in える doesn't that make it a ru verb?
You have to look at the TE
You have to look at the TE form and MASU form of 帰る.
For a RU verb, you would just knock off the RU and add TE.
ie. 食べる becomes 食べて.
But for U verbs, you have to change it a bit.
For 帰る in particular, it becomes 帰って.
This is NOT the same for all U verbs.
Because the る in 帰る becomes a り instead of disappearing when it becomes a MASU form, it is considered a RU verb.
As mentioned previously, this
As mentioned previously, this is an exception. It is listed in Appendix: iru/eru u-verbs (Verb Basics chapter).
I've been studying Japanese
I've been studying Japanese for about 10 years now. Sometimes there are just exceptions that need to be noted.
If you have an Iphone/Ipod touch theres a free dictionary called "Kotoba" that can do conjugations and also tell you what kind of Verb a word is.
If you're serious about studying Japanese, theres 4 books I recommend getting:
Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary
A dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
A dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
and a Japanese Dictionary (Kotoba or others)
It's one of the exceptions
It's one of the exceptions listed on the Verb Basics page.
The word いる can also be
The word いる can also be written as 入る but does that mean the same thing?
No they are different words
No they are different words they just happen to be said same way when they are in ru-form. This occurs quite frequently in Japanese.
いる＝to exist (living things)
入る＝to put
入る with the sound iru is now
入る with the sound iru is now unusual, and it means "to go into". But it is often used in some idioms like "気に入る" (to like). Another reading of 入る is hairu, which is more usual, and it also means "to go into".
待つ? Why is this kanji read as
待つ?
Why is this kanji read as matu ant not matsu? that´s how i red it at first.
So you mean that つ can also be red as tu? I´m confused please explain >.<
The kanji 待つ is read as
The kanji 待つ is read as まつ which in Romaji is matsu but can also be written as matu. It depends on which verson of the Romaji systme you use.
The Hepburn system would read this as matsu (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization).
The Nihon-shiki system would read this as matu (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon-shiki_romanization).
You would be much better off to learn how to read and write the hiragana and katakana first as this will have two benefits, one, you'll learn Japanese faster in the long run if you can read and write Hiragana and Katakana; and ,two, it will lead to less confusion in reading and pronunciation of the characters.
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