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On lang-8 I submitted the top sentence. It was corrected with the bottom one. The person offering the correction said that くないです is often used, but not technically correct.
今日はさむくないです。
今日はさむくありません。Is this along the same lines as saying “aint” is not a word? Or something else?
Here, send me your lang-8 ID or profile page thing.
I too thought that both those forms were valid. I just thought the first one was more casual and the second more formal…
I would say that your comparison to “ain’t” is a pretty good example (insofar as Japanese can be compared to English). I’ve heard くないです countless times, enough to know that it’s most certainly considered valid, even if it’s not “technically” correct in the grammatical sense.
I’ve even heard it said in cases where the person would be required to speak quite formally (specifically it was a worker speaking to a customer).
Personally I think this illustrates that corrections on Lang-8 should sometimes be taken with the tiniest grain of salt, even if it’s by native speakers, as I’m sure Japan has it’s fair share of “Grammar Nazis” just as we do in English.
Anonymous^ This, If I think about how many terrible, terrible fkn corrections English people have made on Japanese journals, it makes you think it’s not all that different from Japanese native speakers/correctors.
OK, cool, that sounds good, and makes sense. I’ll file that correction under “good to know someday when I have a lot more of the language mastered.”
Thanks!
I’m sure Japan has it’s fair share of “Grammar Nazis” just as we do in English.
Its. =P
Anyway, I’m fairly sure one of those forms is more often used in speaking, while the other is more often used in writing. I forget which is which, but maybe that’s the reason for the correction. Or maybe it was not in keeping with the tone of the rest of what you were writing. Either way, I’ve been taught both as equally valid (and for that matter, I’ve rarely-to-never seen my native-speaking lecturers use -ありません for adjectives).
According to Genki, when referring to desu, bare with mit I will tie it together, naidesu a swell as the other tenses are acceptable versions of the word desu. This type is only used when speaking and not when writting, for that we use arimasen and it’s other tenses. Similarly, I assume based off the correction, that it applies to adjectives as well. To give you an idea of the concept just ask yourself if you write papers, even those ment to be a bit more casual, the same way you speak. I hope this helps
As a person who learned it as くないです and never heard of adjectives with ありません, this makes me feel scared, lost, and confused. I really need to hit the grammar books again, and hard.
=^..^=
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