since the thread wasn't updated yet... i have a question about negatives...
Trabius wrote:Simple negative form
Now that you know stem form, you can start conjugating ru verbs into negative form. The plain negative equivalent of a ru verb is the [stem form + ない].
Examples: 食べる(taberu=to eat)--[drop る]-->食べ(たべ)--[add ない]-->食べない(minai=to not eat)
肉を食べない(niku wo tabenai)=I do not eat meat
Likewise for the formal negative equivalent of a ru verb is the [stem form + ません] 見(mi)-->見ません(mimasen=to not see).
yay, Trabius said this is the simple negative form. are there more complex forms?? 'cause, for xample, in my textbook it says (everything in kanas, the book doesn't gets into kanjis yet):
いいえ、これは ほん でわ ありません
and the following sentences in negative are the same, having でわ ありません. is this a negative form only for です?? or a different form to negativize??
Macko Darlack wrote:
yay, Trabius said this is the simple negative form. are there more complex forms?? 'cause, for xample, in my textbook it says (everything in kanas, the book doesn't gets into kanjis yet):
いいえ、これは ほん でわ ありません
and the following sentences in negative are the same, having でわ ありません. is this a negative form only for です?? or a different form to negativize??[/color]
You're right- that's just the negative form of the copula.
But there are other negative forms- they're from classical Japanese but they are still used in some cases. The two most important are the endings "-nu", which is a simple negative form used in a lot of idioms, and the ending "-zu" which is pretty much an adverbial negative... the closest English translation would be "without doing such and such." I can offer some example sentences if you want, but I can't at the moment as the machine I am using right now is not set up for Japanese.
"Please note, we have added a consequence for failure.Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official test record, followed by death. Good luck."
about negatives...
i only got to the particles and got confused after that...
