Learn the past and negative forms of the copula desu
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| Welcome to learn Japanese grammar absolute beginner. In this video series, you learn basic Japanese grammar patterns and phrases through easy to follow audio and visual cues. Here is what we will cover in this lesson. |
| Ready? |
| Let’s get started. |
| Naomi: ラリーじゃありません。 (Rarī ja arimasen.) |
| Eric: I am not Larry. All right, what’s the key point here? |
| Naomi: じゃありません。 (ja arimasen.) The negative form of です (desu). |
| Eric: So the negative of です(desu) is ではありません (de wa arimasen) which is the first way to say a negative form. There is three ways. What’s the second way, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: じゃありません (ja arimasen) |
| Eric: And all we did here was get that では (de wa) from ではありません (de wa arimasen) and shorten it into じゃ (ja). And what’s the third way? |
| Naomi: じゃないです (ja nai desu) |
| Eric: And this is no less polite. It’s also polite but you just got the ありません (arimasen) and you turned it into ない (nai). And ない (nai) is the casual version of ありません (arimasen) but we attachです(desu) at the end. So it remains polite. So you can use it to anybody. All right and all of these expressions are polite. Are there any real differences in the way that you use them, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: I would say ではありません (de wa arimasen) is the most polite expression. |
| Eric: Do you ever define yourself using it? |
| Naomi: In speaking? Not much. |
| Eric: How about in writing? |
| Naomi: Writing, I use it a lot. |
| Eric: Okay Naomi-sensei, so let’s be a little negative here. |
| Naomi: はい (hai) |
| Eric: Translate all my sentences into negative |
| 私はロリーです。 (Watashi wa Rorī desu.) |
| Naomi: 私はロリーではありません。 (watashi wa Rorī de wa arimasen.). |
| Eric: 私はロリーです。 (Watashi wa Rorī desu.) |
| Naomi: 私はロリーじゃありません。 (Watashi wa Rorī ja arimasen.) |
| Eric: 私はロリーです。 (Watashi wa Rorī desu.) |
| Naomi: 私はロリーじゃないです。 (Watashi wa Rorī ja nai desu.) |
| Eric: And those are three ways of saying I am not Lori.in the same level of politeness. |
| Naomi: ラリーじゃありません。 (Rarī ja arimasen.) |
| Naomi: うどんは三百円でした。 (Udon wa san-byaku-en deshita.) |
| Rebekah Let’s have a look at noun sentences and putting them in their polite past form. |
| Naomi: うどんは300円でした。 (Udon wa san-byaku-en deshita.) |
| Rebekah This sentence, the Udon was 300 yen is a noun sentence and it’s in the past form. The polite past form. So if we were just going to say, the Udon is 300 yen, it would be |
| Naomi: うどんは300円です。 (Udon wa san-byaku-en desu.) |
| Rebekah Okay. So putting it in the past tense, what changes is the Desu on the end? It becomes, |
| Naomi: でした (deshita) |
| Rebekah This is pretty simple. So for example, if we were going to say $1 is 100 yen, we would say, |
| Naomi: １ドルは100円です。 (Ichi-doru wa hyaku-en desu.) |
| Rebekah But was there a time I think when $1 was worth a lot more yen? |
| Naomi: はい。 (Hai.) 360円かな。 (San-byaku roku-jū-en kana.) 360 yen. |
| Rebekah Okay, so how would we say the dollar was worth 360 yen, was being the past tense? |
| Naomi: １ドルは360円でした。 (Ichi-doru wa san-byaku roku-jū-en deshita.) |
| Rebekah Okay. So you can hear there that the です (desu) is becoming でした (deshita) to indicate past tense and this is polite past tense. All right, let’s look at just a couple more noun sentences in the polite past form. |
| Naomi: ケネディはアメリカ人でした。 (Kenedi wa Amerika-jin deshita.) |
| Rebekah Kennedy, you mean JFK? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Rebekah Yeah I guess so. |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Rebekah So JFK was an American. |
| Naomi: はい。 (Hai.) Since he has already passed away, I used でした(deshita). |
| Rebekah Okay so if you were talking about President Bush, you would say, |
| Naomi: ブッシュはアメリカ人です。 (Busshu wa Amerika-jin desu.) |
| Rebekah So I think you probably get the picture now. It’s just the difference between です (desu) and でした (deshita) . That’s all that changes in the sentence if you were indicating non-past or past because non-past is です (desu) and past is でした (deshita) |
| Naomi: うどんは三百円でした。 (Udon wa san-byaku-en deshita.) |
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Comments
HidePractice making your own sentences here, and let us know if you have any questions! :)
こんにちは、Savinaさん！
I'm glad you're asking about Japanese grammar. It's wonderful to see your enthusiasm for learning!
Yes, there absolutely is a past negative form in Japanese. This is an important aspect of Japanese grammar that allows you to express things that did not happen in the past. Let me explain it in more detail:
The past negative form in Japanese is created by changing the verb ending to ～なかった (nakatta).
Here are some examples:
1. 食べる (taberu - to eat)
Past negative: 食べなかった (tabenakatta - did not eat)
2. 行く (iku - to go)
Past negative: 行かなかった (ikanakatta - did not go)
3. 見る (miru - to see/watch)
Past negative: 見なかった (minakatta - did not see/watch)
4. する (suru - to do)
Past negative: しなかった (shinakatta - did not do)
Remember, for adjectives and the copula です (desu), the past negative forms are:
- い-adjectives: ～くなかった (-kunakatta)
Example: 楽しくなかった (tanoshikunakatta - was not fun)
- な-adjectives: ～じゃなかった (-ja nakatta)
Example: 静かじゃなかった (shizuka ja nakatta - was not quiet)
- Copula です: ～じゃなかった (-ja nakatta)
Example: 学生じゃなかった (gakusei ja nakatta - was not a student)
I hope this helps clarify the past negative form for you. Keep up the great work with your Japanese studies! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
ありがとうございます！
Kazuya
Team JapanesePod101.com
hi!
Is there a past negative form?
thanks for the lesson!
Juliaさん
こんにちは！
Thank you for trying the sentences😊
Good work and it's almost.
Probably you want to say like this.
私は日本人じゃありません。イギリス人です。
Please let us know if you have any question:)
Sincerely,
Miho
Team JapanesePod101.com
私は日本語じゃないありません。イギリス人。
Hi Hao,
Thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to search series by hosts.
We’ll consider your feedback for our future development.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Cheers,
Lena
Team JapanesePod101.com
I like the voices of these 4 teachers a lot.
Jesse - from US
Girl from this lesson - from Europe I think
Naomi
The man in this lesson.
It'd be nice if I can get to access all the lessons provided by these 4 teachers appeared in this lesson.
In other words, I can drill down to all lessons involved with one specific teacher.
Thanks
Noahさん
Thank you so much for your comment😄
The video doesn't have any romaji and I couldn't find the error you pointed out.
It is ありません "arimasen" correctly😉
Please let us know if you have any questions :)
Sincerely
りょうま（Ryoma）
Team JapanesePod101.com
Why is it written "Aramasen" (romaji) in the video, but in the dialogue section below the video it's written as "Arimasen" (romaji)?
Panther22さん
コメントありがとうございます😄
良いですね！
Please let us know if you have any questions :)
Sincerely
りょうま（Ryoma）
Team JapanesePod101.com
今日は学校に行きました😉
ジェイダさん
コメントありがとうございます😄
Your sentences are correct👍
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Thank you for studying with us!
Sincerely,
Erica
Team JapanesePod101.com
学生ではありません。でも、私は学生でした。
Konnichiwa Rachel,
Your sentence is perfect. よくできました！👍
Sono
Team JapanesePod101.com
レイチェルはアメリカ人です。
Kさん
コメントありがとうございます！
例文（れいぶん）は完璧（かんぺき）ですよ👍
(Your example sentences are perfect).
Please let us know if you have any question :)
Sincerely
Ryoma
Team JapanesePod101.com
わたしはにほんじんではありません。
これは100えんでした。
Thank you for your comments, everyone!
>Hi white,
Thank you for answering red's question.
That's right!
>Hi red,
As white explained, "de wa arimasen" is a negative form of "desu" that is a polite form of "da". Also "arimasen" could be a negarive polite form of "aru", but in that case, "de" doesn't come before "(wa) arimasen".
>Hi Sarah,
Good job!
>Hi Menna,
"dewa nai" is a normal form while "ja nai" sounds a bit casual.
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
What about dewa nai?
私は日本人じゃありません。私の犬は白でした。
@red:
"De wa arimasen" is the negation of the COPULA da. The "arimasen" in this case has nothing to do with the verb of existence (i.e. arimasu or irimasu). It is confusing, cause in English we use "to be" both as copula (A=B) and as verb of existence ("A exists").