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So, TF teaches じゃありません as the negative form but recently I was informed that では ありません is considered the “polite” version, while じゃありません is the contracted and slightly less polite version. In conversation does the difference matter enough that I should mentally start correcting myself, or is じゃありません still acceptable?
I know there’s several forms of “politeness” but this threw me a little as to when it should be used.
では is a hair more formal than じゃ. My gut says では tends to be used more in writing, while じゃ (or possibly even じゃないです rather than じゃありません) tends to be used more in speech, but I can’t remember where I learnt that, and I can’t find anything to corroborrate it, sooo…
P.S. Couldn’t help but notice you’ve made a few typos, there. 気を付けてね.
Yeah I did make a couple. I totally wasn’t paying attention, and mistyping は in instances like this is a common event for me, and of course I didn’t double-check the second じゃありません…-sighs-
Nothing like embarrassing yourself to make you learn a lesson though!
Had this exact question myself after being corrected on Lang-8, I used じぁありません (well I tried but failed with a spelling mistake, but I think they understood what I was trying to do) and I was corrected to では ありまけん. Spent a huge time trying to work it out. Not finding much online for じぁありません either and now with this post and answer I’m one step closer. :D
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