Last week in Japanese class, we learned the informal non-past tense (Verb + ない). As I was making flash cards, I noticed that the negative command form was just the informal non-past + で. For example, (I) eat: 食べる; (I) don't eat: 食べない; (You) don't eat!: 食べないで. Cool! This is like hitting two birds with one stone.
Actually it sounds quite familiar. I guess when I lived in Japan, people were constantly telling me not to do things.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
January 29, 2003
Comments
「忘れ（物）ないようにご注意ください。」
will forever be burned into my brain...
(not exactly a nai-de request, but you certainly hear a lot of "don't do this" requests.)
--Jason
Comment by: Jason Cha. Posted January 29, 2003 05:26 PM.
non-past tense? erm.. what u r saying is present tense? quite understand your verb-nai-de-(kudasai) but i dont get your informal non-past tense of verb-nai.
Comment by: pikey. Posted January 29, 2003 08:26 PM.
Pikey-dude
Unlike English, which has a past, present, and future tenses, Japanese has only a past and non-past. The non-past tense includes both the future tense and the present habitual. So, if you want to say "Tomorrow I will eat fish" or "Everyday I eat fish" in both cases you'd use "tabemasu".
I usually think of it as past and present, too, though.
Comment by: M. Posted January 29, 2003 09:09 PM.
Hmmm. I don't actually think of that as a negative command form... It's more like a negative request. It's really short for 食べないでください. If you want a _real_ negative command form, you can use 食べるな... as opposed to たべろ.
Comment by: Trevor Hill. Posted February 4, 2003 08:20 PM.
So people were just begging me not to?..."Please, please don't do that." :-)
Point taken, though. I read that the ください makes it a negative request, but I rarely remember hearing it. Maybe we were just an informal bunch.
When people really wanted to tell me to cut it out, they'd just say, "だめ。だめ。" and make a little ばつ (X) with their hands. I remember the thing that used to freak my vice-principal out is that I'd sit on my desk to conduct class. Or I'd let my students leave their coats on during class when it was freezing cold. Or I'd wear my muffler inside the staff room.
Comment by: M. Posted February 4, 2003 09:24 PM.
Share Your Thoughts
Last week in...