Japanese Nai Form: Verb Negatives and Exceptions

The plain negative is needed for negative statements and patterns such as ないでください. Start from the dictionary form and the verb group. It is a different route from attaching ない to a polite ます form.

Formation and use

Godan verbs move to the a-row: 書く→書かない, 飲む→飲まない, 待つ→待たない, 話す→話さない. Verbs ending in う use わ, not あ: 買う→買わない.

Ichidan verbs remove る and add ない: 食べない, 見ない, 起きない. 帰る is godan, so its negative is 帰らない. Knowing the group prevents the mistaken 帰ない.

Comparisons and common errors

The irregular negatives are しない and 来ない（こない）. The existence verb ある has the exceptional negative ない, not あらない. いる is regular ichidan: いない.

For a negative past, change ない to なかった: 食べなかった. For a polite negative statement, use 食べません. 食べないでください asks someone not to eat; 食べなくてもいい says eating is not required.

Practise with explanations

Try the 10 questions below, or open the practice set. Check each answer or the whole set, read the explanation, and retry mistakes. First-attempt results are kept separately on this device.

Connected lessons

• Japanese Verb Groups: Godan, Ichidan, and Irregular Verbs
• Japanese Ta Form: Plain Past Conjugation
• Naide Kudasai: Negative Requests