Structure
［な］Adjective + では(1) + なかった
Noun + では(1) + なかった
(1)じゃ
Details
Part of Speech
Verb
Word Type
Auxiliary Verb
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Standard
About じゃなかった
じゃなかった is the casual form of ではなかった. では itself is regularly contracted to じゃ in Japanese, so is worth remembering as its own structure. じゃなかった (casual), or ではなかった (semi-polite) are the structures used for creating the negative-past form of nouns and な-Adjectives.
Either じゃなかった or ではなかった will simply be added to the base form of a noun or な-Adjective.
じゃ and では may also be used with the negative-past ます form of ある, to create the polite variant.
Related
Examples
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りんごじゃなかった。
It was not an apple.
先生じゃなかった。
They were not a teacher.
晩ごはんが好きではなかった。
Dinner was not liked by me.
その動物は、牛じゃなかった。
That animal was not a cow.
宿題は大変ではありませんでした。
The homework was not terrible/hard.
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Adjectives Past & Past Negatives
Japanese Ammo
How to use all forms of じゃない
Maggie Sensei
Offline
Genki I
Page 174
Genki I 2nd Edition
Page 212
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 32
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 89
みんなの日本語 I
Page 80 [CH 12]
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