Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 5: 8/12

う-Verb (Negative-Past)う - Verbs (Negative-past tense)

When a past negative sentence has a connection with the present, for example, something was expected to happen but has not happened for the moment, the verb[て] + いません construction is used instead

Structure

座(すわ)る + らなかった
歌(うた)う + わなかった
歩(ある)く + かなかった
話(はな)す + さなかった
打(う)つ + たなかった
死(し)ぬ + ななかった
飛(と)ぶ + ばなかった
休(やす)む + まなかった
泳(およ)ぐ + がなかった

Exceptions:
ある ￫ なかった

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Verb

  • Word Type

    Auxiliary Verb

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    Standard

About う-Verb (Negative-Past)

In order to make the negative past form of う-Verbs, you will need to change the last kana of the verb into the あ sound kana from the same column (or わ if the original kana was う). After this, the あ sound kana will be followed by ない (or ます), conjugated into their past forms. This will either be なかった (casual), or ませんでした (polite).

For the ませんでした (polite) form, rather than the final kana changing to the あ sound kana from the same column, it will change to the い sound kana from the same column.

The negative past form is used to convey that something 'did not happen', or 'was not'.

A semi-polite form may also be used. This is constructed by using なかった, and then simply adding です. This form is not grammatically correct, but is so common that most sources (and native speakers) would consider it correct.

ある is an exception to the regular conjugation rules of う-Verbs. The casual past-negative is not あらなかった, but simply なかった. However, the polite past-negative form conjugates in the same way as would be expected for う-Verbs. ありませんでした.

Related

Examples

--:--

    昨日(きのう)、行(い)かなかった。
    昨日(きのう)、行(い)かなかったです。
    昨日(きのう)、行(い)きませんでした。

    I didn't go yesterday.

    遊(あそ)ばなかった。
    遊(あそ)ばなかったです。
    遊(あそ)びませんでした。

    I didn't hang out.

    はなこさんは話(はな)さなかった。
    はなこさんは話(はな)さなかったです。
    はなこさんは話(はな)しませんでした。

    Hanako didn't talk.

    彼女(かのじょ)は事故(じこ)で死(し)ななかった！
    彼女(かのじょ)は事故(じこ)で死(し)ななかったです！
    彼女(かのじょ)は事故(じこ)で死(し)にませんでした！

    She didn't die in the accident!

    それも知(し)らなかった。

    I didn’t know that either.

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う-Verb (Negative-Past) – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (15 in total)

  • homa

    homa

    I struggle with the way bunpro gives me a solution here.

  • discopatrick

    discopatrick

    For me, at the beginning at least, I think this is fine if you view the card as teaching you that there is a pattern between the three ways of saying it.

    However, as my understanding progresses, I would expect to be challenged to recall each style individually without having the hint of the others being present. If there are no cards where BunPro does this, then that sounds like a gap in the curriculum to me.

  • homa

    homa

    Ye, after posting this I realized that it’s not that big of a deal if you go beyond first ~50-100 topics as you see this latter everywhere, a lot of conjugations are based on it. So the only problem is to remember exceptions for い and え rule

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