Usage of Nai (ない) used for ‘No’?

6 comments

1. No, not exactly.

   If you were to just say ない it would mean you don’t have something or that something is not there.

   Is there any sushi?

   ない。

   This could be translated as “No.” But what it really means is “There isn’t any.” It would be translated as “No.” Because it’s what sounds natural, not because it’s accurate.

   Because ない is the short form of ありません which is the negative of あります which means to exist. It’s not a denial in like いいえ.

   Do you like to eat sushi?

   There isn’t any.

   This is what it would be said if one answers ない do the question.

   You can say just ない if it’s short for “No, there isn’t any”, but for someone like “No, I don’t like it.”

2. In reference to your casual. There is a video by yuta that touches the subject on how to say no. https://youtu.be/J9JdP6pA5LY

3. Some informal cases, such as:
   A: 実際行ってみたら好きになる事もあるだろ？
   B: ない。絶対にない
   In this case, it is used as a short form of そんな事はない。

4. Sometimes you will hear people say like ないわー, ないね or ないないない meaning “impossible!” or “no way”, but I don’t think that’s the first thing to learn. Usually you don’t use ない to say “No.”

5. ない by itself is the negative of ある.

   What you might not be taught explicitly is that while there are words for yes and no– はい、いいえ、うん、ええ、etc– it’s quite natural to instead repeat the verb to agree, or flip the negative polarity to disagree. So you may be taught something like パソコンがありますか — **はい、あります**, but it’s equally valid to respond just あります, or in informal register, ある. What about disagreeing? Most formal is いいえ、ありません, but you can also respond just ありません. And because the verb ある is a bit irregular, this is just ない in the informal register. (Confusingly for low level learners, you’ll also hear ないです as a medium-formal register, possibly more often than plain formal ありません)

   However, change the verb and you kinda can’t just respond ない anymore… maybe. That’s definitely the case with いる:
   * 兄弟がいますか
   * はい、(妹が2人)います
   * **or** just (…)います/いる/etc
   * **or** いいえ、いません
   * **or** just いません/いない

   It would be downright strange to respond here with just ない. ~~(although i often mess up and do anyway.)~~

   With other verbs it can be less clear-cut, in the most informal registers it seems to be possible. Someone has the example of 食べない being shortened to just ない – as a learner I would avoid this. Try and stick to repeating the whole verb. In the examples such as 食べた事があるか？–ない, this is normal and not an abbreviation per se because the finite verb in the question is ある, not 食べた.

   As for the actual question in your post, you would perhaps phrase it as すしが好きですか, to which an appropriate response is はい、好きです, (or そうです). Informally you would shorten to 好き！ or 好きだよ！ rather than *です or *だ by themselves. To disagree you would say like 好きではないです or 好きじゃない, again kinda strange to shorten to just ない but i think it’s possible in very informal registers.

   More generally if the question is an adjective (好き acts like a な adjective), you repeat the adjective in your answer. You can’t just say です by itself.

   (for food you can also say 食べられますか, in which case again you repeat the whole verb)

   (and yes, it’s fine to just say はい/いいえ if you don’t want to repeat the whole verb lol)

6. I think it’s more “None” in meaning than no.