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I’m at season 2, learning about the negative nouns.
Koichi is teaching us じゃありません. Now, I also know there is ではありません.Is either fine? Or is dewa arimasen even more formal than ja arimasen is? Since ja arimasen is close to janai.
My teacher, who is a Japanese national, says that both are polite, with ではありません being a bit more formal. So you’re about right.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up!
Rule of thumb is the longer something takes to say, the more polite it is. =)
AnonymousYeah, そのとおり。
So would ではない rank somewhere betweenじゃない and じゃありません? and/or would it be more accurate to consider ‘formality’ and ‘politeness’ as two seperate (but highly related) concepts?
It would be slightly more polite than じゃない, yes.
Thank you for this post. I was listening to Japanese radio stations and hearing a lot of ありません instead of じゃありません and I was wondering why.
@Francois: Well, ありません is a whole other verb on its own (negative form of ある), so don’t relax just yet :P
So could you say that でわありません would need to be used with Business Professionals, such as bosses or co-workers, thus leaving じゃありません for maybe family friends or strangers in the rank of politeness level and everyday usage?
And then if you were to shorten it to じゃない, when would the usage be appropriate then, and likewise with でわない.
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” ― Albert Einstein@Kris: Best way to learn what’s acceptable and what isn’t is to listen to Japanese natives. Do as they do.
And be careful when you’re typing (“wa” vs “ha”).
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