Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 6: 5/13

じゃないIs not, Isn't

Cannot be used with, い-Adjectives

Structure

［な］Adjective + では(1) + ない
Noun + では(1) + ない

(1)じゃ

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Verb

  • Word Type

    Auxiliary Verb

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    Standard

About じゃない

じゃない is the casual form of ではない. では is regularly contracted to じゃ in Japanese, so is worth remembering as its own structure. じゃない (casual), or ではない (semi-polite) are the structures used for creating the negative form of nouns and な-Adjectives.

These structures are simply added to the base form of the noun or な-Adjective.

じゃ and では can also be used with the negative ます form of ある, to create the polite variant.

ない is sometimes said/written as ね or ねえ. However, this is considered very casual, or even a bit rough. Accordingly, it is best avoided in most conversations.

Caution

じゃない is used very frequently to ask questions. This is similar to じゃないか, a grammar point covered in another lesson. However, the nuance difference is that じゃない as a question is a little bit more blunt, like 'isn't it?' in English. On the other hand, じゃないか is more like 'don't you think?'.

When じゃない is used as a question, it will usually be obvious, due to a rising tone.

Antonyms

Related

Examples

--:--

    犬(いぬ)じゃない。

    It is not a dog.

    先生(せんせい)じゃない。

    I am not a teacher.

    牛肉(ぎゅうにく)じゃないです。

    It is not beef.

    この絵(え)は、綺麗(きれい)じゃありません。

    This painting is not beautiful.

    好(す)きな スポーツは、サッカーではありません。

    The sport that I like is not soccer.

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じゃない – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (9 in total)

  • Jake

    Jake

    is not

    Structure

    • Noun or なAdjective +
      • じゃない・ではない
      • じゃありません・ではありません
      • じゃない・ではない
      • じゃありません・ではありません

    [It can be shortened to じゃねえ in very casual speech.]

    Cannot be used with

    • い-adjectives

    View on Bunpro

  • madmalkav

    madmalkav

    The grammar point have entries for Nouns and Na adjectives, but seems it is used the same in both cases, so I think it will be better to merge all together.

  • Marcus

    Marcus

    Great video on this grammar point here, starting at 5:03
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS4Z9-3XauA

  • colaceirios

    colaceirios

    Noob question! Sorry for the bump. Before using Bunpro, I learned to use ではありません. Then, the video linked above says that じゃ is another version of では. So, what’s the difference between ではありません and じゃありません? Is one more formal than the other, or are they totally interchangeable? Thanks.

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    @colaceirios

    Hey and welcome on the community forums

    So, what’s the difference between ではありません and じゃありません? Is one more formal than the other, or are they totally interchangeable?

    ではありません is more polite than じゃありません。
    Because じゃ is a contraction of では。

    There is another way of polite negation, which is nowadays really popular - じゃないです。It feels “softer” than ありません ones.
    It also has more polite variant, ではないです。

    When it comes to mean they are all identical.

    are they totally interchangeable?

    Most of the time yes, though in some situations, where you have to be extremely po...

  • gael

    gael

    Hello!

    In the reviews, one of the questions says to use [polite] form, but ではありません is refused, giving じゃありません as the correct answer.

    Isn’t this casual?

    Edit: わ —> は

  • nekoyama

    nekoyama

    It’s still polite compared to じゃない, but more casual than ではありません.

  • gael

    gael

    Thanks for the reply and the correction.

    My interrogation remains though: why is ではありません refused as an answer?

  • nekoyama

    nekoyama

    It’s not refused. I tested it. I assumed you made the same typo you edited out of your earlier post.

    If the example sentence uses じゃ it will display that as the solution even when you answer では, but it will not refuse では.

  • gael

    gael

    Weird. I don’t think I made the typo, but let’s give that as the answer.

    I just had a restest now, and it was accepted, so your explanation is the simplest one.

    Thanks!

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