Negative Verb Practice Exercises

Posted by Tae Kim

Vocabulary used in this section

This is the same list of verbs from the previous practice exercise. We will use the same verbs from the last exercise to practice conjugating to the negative.

Kanji
I have listed the kanji you will need for the vocabulary for your convenience. The link will take you to a diagram of the stroke order.
However, it doesn't clearly show the direction (though you can kind of tell by the animation) so you should check with a kanji dictionary if you're not sure.
I recommend practicing the kanji in the context of real words (such as the ones below).
  1. - see
  2. - come; next
  3. - go; conduct
  4. - go home
  5. - eat; food
  6. - drink
  7. - buy
  8. - sell
  9. - hold
  10. - wait
  11. - read
  12. - walk
  13. - run
  14. - play
Vocabulary

Here is a list of some common verbs you will definitely want to learn at some point.
  1. する - to do
  2. しゃべる - to talk; to chat
  3. 見る【みる】 - to see
  4. 来る【くる】 - to come
  5. 行く【いく】 - to go
  6. 帰る 【かえる】 - to go home
  7. 食べる 【たべる】 - to eat
  8. 飲む 【のむ】 - to drink
  9. 買う 【かう】 - to buy
  10. 売る 【うる】 - to sell
  11. 切る 【きる】 - to cut
  12. 入る 【はいる】 - to enter
  13. 出る 【でる】 - to come out
  14. 持つ 【もつ】 - to hold
  15. 待つ 【まつ】 - to wait
  16. 書く【かく】 - to write
  17. 読む 【よむ】 - to read
  18. 歩く 【あるく】 - to walk
  19. 走る 【はしる】 - to run
  20. 遊ぶ 【あそぶ】 - to play

Practice with Negative Verb Conjugations

We learned how to classify the following verbs in the previous practice exercise. Now, we are going to put that knowledge to use by conjugating the same verbs into the negative depending on which type of verb it is. The first answer has been given as an example.

verb negative
行く 行かない
出る 出ない
する しない
買う 買わない
売る 売らない
食べる 食べない
入る 入らない
来る こない
飲む 飲まない
しゃべる しゃべらない
見る 見ない
切る 切らない
帰る 帰らない
書く 書かない

can you write こない using the

can you write こない using the kanji? (meaning it would be written as 来ない?)


Yes it seems

Yes it seems so:
http://jisho.org/sentences?jap=%E6%9D%A5%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84&eng=

Also when writing with keyboard(IME) 来ない comes up as an option for こない.


why "ku-ru" (to come)

why "ku-ru" (to come) conjugate into "KO-nai"? ku = ko? this part wasnt mentioned anywhere...
i actually knew it's gonna be konai, but according to the rules i knew it would be a problem.. so i thought maybe it's gonna be KI-nai?

thanks.


Yes, it's explained, you just

Yes, it's explained, you just missed it. On an earlier page the conjugation こない is listed under "exception" verbs. Other textbooks also call it an "irregular" verb.


How can I now when to treat

How can I now when to treat -ru verbs as -u verbs? Is there a rule or are those exceptions?


You never treat ru-verbs as

You never treat ru-verbs as u-verbs; there just are u-verbs that end in る. Now guessing which category a る-ending verb is in, that's challenging to me.


Actually, there's an

Actually, there's an exceptions for る-verbs. Like, 切る(kiru), when you get this verb in a negative form, it turns into 切らない(kiranai). The same to other verb that appears in this lession: 入る(hairu), negative form: 入らない(hairanai). For short: Some verbs ending in る have exceptions.


That's because kiru and hairu

That's because kiru and hairu isn't -ru verbs.


In the Negative Verbs

In the Negative Verbs exercises I noticed that some verbs when conjucted negatively that it adds a ら and then the nai why is that? It wasn't mentioned in the lesson is why I'm asking.


if you read carefully you

if you read carefully you will see that while most verbs that end in "iru" and "eru" are "ru-verbs" there are some exceptions (as you have found out) which are in fact u-verbs and require you to change the "u" to an "a"


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