Home › Forums › The Japanese Language › Season 2: Questions to じゃありません

This topic contains 6 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by  Sheepy 12 years, 11 months ago.

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  • January 6, 2012 at 3:03 am #23782

    Kroentschies
    Member

    I’ve just finished the negative nouns practice じゃありません in Season 2.

    While studying I noticed two details:

    Question about the usage of じゃありません

    じゃありません is an expression which I can use for everything like cats, cow, elephants, nuts, melons, paper, etc.?
    I’m asking because my other book I’m using to study says that Japanese uses different words, in order to say, I have or I have not, depending on the “aliveness” of the thing. I was reading sentences like
    てずかさんのうちにわ ねこが　いません。　コンピューターが　あります。
    This doesn’t apply for じゃありません?

    Question about the pronounciation of じゃありません

    I noticed that the じゃありません part was pronounced differently depending on the the words used before.

    ねこ　じゃありません or みかん　じゃありません
    The じ is pronounced like in the Godzilla-Movie.

    いぬ　じゃありません or じてんしゃ　じゃありません
    The じ is pronounced softer, kind of combining the last letter with the じ sounding more like a sh than a j.
    I noticed that for the letters u and a  (not e and a as I wrote first. Sorry, got once again mixed up ぬ and ね).
    What’s the pronouciation for other letters at this place, if there are any?

    Did I miss some other pronounciation details?

    January 6, 2012 at 4:00 am #23783

    Hatt0ri
    Member

    じゃありません is conjugation of です. いません and あります are conjugations of verbs いる and ある. That’s why, you can use じゃありません in the same way you would use です. And, as you noticed yourself, いる and ある have their own rules of usage.

    I don’t think there are any rules for pronunciation of じゃありません. If there were, Koichi would surely mention them. It’s just one of those things, like how せんぱい actually sounds like sempai.

    January 6, 2012 at 5:29 am #23787

    Kroentschies
    Member

    Thanks for your explanation Hattori.

    Well, I better get used to the idea, that words like ありません are more multifunctional, than I ever dreamt of (at the moment at least).

    I’m sure there are rules for pronunciation, probably quite a bunch of them to make Japanese sound nicely in every sentence.

    About the pronunciation せんぱい and かんぱい I was reading yesterday. Also about the げいしゃ and せんせい. There, I used to pronounce the “ei” no as ee. Maybe I’ve even found out, how to get the Japanese r-sound ;-)

    January 6, 2012 at 3:07 pm #23919

    MisterM2402 [Michael]
    Member

    です・である・であります is like “it is” while ある・あります is like “there is” (or more literally, “it exists”). ある is for inanimate objects while いる is for… “animate” ones, living ones. じゃありません・じゃない・ではありません can be used anywhere, for anything, I think. A much more common conjugation of じゃありません is じゃないです, I guess since it’s easier to say, even though it’s not “technically” correct.

    じゃありません, when combined with か, can have kind of a backwards meaning, but I’ve not got the time to go over it :P

    January 6, 2012 at 4:56 pm #23942

    Anden
    Member

    Here’s how I rationalized the difference.

    じゃありません- This is the negative form of です. です　only states something is. It marks that the sentence is a statement and nothing more.

    あります/います are verbs that describe existence. These describe the existence of something rather than simply describing that something is/is not. I’m pretty sure there’s some other ideas in my subconscious that allow me to differentiate them freely, but I can’t think of them. If this explanation is weird or wrong then someone please correct me.

    EDITED for some typos.

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 11 months ago by  Anden.
    January 8, 2012 at 2:36 am #24029

    Kroentschies
    Member

    Oh, well, there is lot’s of work ahead of me. I mean, not just work work, the harder part is probably to adjust the way of thinking, all those different concepts of what is important in a language and what doesn’t matter.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your explanations.
    I think, I got this part. There might be 3 zillon others waiting ;-)

    January 8, 2012 at 4:08 am #24035

    Sheepy
    Moderator

    Something else it seems your textbook is talking about, is using the right word when someone has “something”. For instance, if someone asks if you have a computer you can say “あるよ” which means “Yeah there is one (I have one)”. The same applies for shops, you can say “とうふがありますか？” which means “Do you have tofu?”.

    HOWEVER, if someone is actually in possession of something you use　持ち (もち), which is usually said as 持っている or 持っています (politeness levels). The difference is, this thing is a thing you are carrying, like a map. “ちずを持っているの？” so “Do you have a map? (on you)”. Lastly, this also applies for cars and other automobiles.

    ね車を持っているの？ – Hey, do you have a car?
    いいえいいえ、持ってないよ. – no I don’t have one

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 11 months ago by  Sheepy.
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