Masen

6 comments

1. Pretty much always the ません or ない ending means a negative statement. There are certain times where you may have a double negative or word like しか which seems to use a negative inflection but doesn’t necessarily imply a negative statement. I don’t think the word ‘opposite’ is the right way to go about thinking, but more so ‘not’.

2. For “ません” itself yes, but usually there are some double negative combination, like ：

   食べません　ー＞食べなければなりません

   It becomes “cannot not to eat” -> so it means “must eat”

3. ません is how you conjugate negatively.

   食べます
   食べません

   遊びます
   遊びません

   Basically think of it as not (very simplified way)

   I go 行きます
   I don’t go 行きません

   Some of the nuance comes from fixed expressions that use the negative form like すみません technically this is a negatively congugated word but is a fixed expression. Also the congugation for must uses this as well.

   ない is similar (食べる　たべない)
   However ない is also a word it self (native congugation of ある) as well as it being part of some words that aren’t negative (あぶない 危ない)

4. Steak = ステーキ
   Wonderful/fabulous = 素敵(ステキ)

   Big difference

5. Not always.

   Both ません and ない are often used to negate something, (polite and plain form, respectively). However, there are cases like the

   なければなりません/なければならない forms, which you use with a negated verb, forming a double negation.

   So, 行かなければなりません means “Not not go”, which ends as “I must go”.

6. Yes, basically the opposite

   So you can also say ‘Didn’t you eat steak’ by saying すてきはたべませんでしたか

   which is just another way of asking if you did

   Sorry for lack of katakana, I don’t have access to a proper japanese keyboard now