After many years of independent study and living with a Japanese spouse, I recently moved to Japan and have finally been in contact with “real” Japanese on a regular basis now.
I keep hearing an expression that feels “wrong” but seems to be acceptable: when someone asks 〇〇ありますか？or 〇〇持ってますか？to say no you can use ないです.
My instinct is to say ありません or 持ってません but if I pay attention to the way my wife speaks she pretty much always uses ないです, and I’ve heard this from others as well.
Anyone else encounter this? And is there an actual grammatical explanation or is it just common usage?
11 comments
I use bunpro to study grammar and it teaches that its very common to use a short form +です to make something semi polite. Its not “correct” japanese, but its natural.
The first time my class interacted with Japanese students in their late teens and early twenties, we were going over 〜たことがある. So we domestic students asked the Japanese students if they had experience doing various things, and every single time the answer happened to be a “no,” it was literally never “いいえ、ありません” as per Genki’s dialogue. It was always “ないです”.
ない is just the plain form of ありません
です adds some politeness.
持ってない is the plain form of 持ってません. Add です and you get 持ってないです, as above. You can omit the 持って, and just say ないです, since it’s understood by context. Just as in English. “Will you wait?” -> “No[, I will not wait]”.
Read further here (under ない + politeness) : https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-negative-nai-form/
In short, you use the plain form to be more casual, but then add some politeness. Some find it weird, but it’s common.
Welcome to reality! Never looks like the textbook, does it
In addition to the other comments, ないです isn’t grammatically wrong for the same reason 高いです is correct. It just so happens there are two ways to politely say the negative form of a verb because ない is also an i-adjective/adjectival verb. I get the impression that 〜ません is seen as too formal to use all the time for standard politeness.
It is one of those things that is “officially” wrong, but in practice it is not. Language changes with times and constructions that used to not considered grammatical can start to be acceptable over time. ないです is one of such constructions. However, “textbook language” tends to be more conservative than reality, so they often keep teaching something is “wrong” when they very much are not.
In other words, ないです exist and textbooks are wrong. Some people will be pedantic and take issue with it, but they are minority. Of course, the ‘ません’ construction is still also correct, so if you are used to it already, no sense forcing yourself to say ないです.
PS: you can actually see the evolution in adjectives. Basically nobody complains about ないです if it is used with an い-adjective (ex:大きくないです), but “くありません” is also a valid way to do the same thing (ex:大きくありません). If ないです is wrong in the other situations, why not here? It is basically because that changed is slightly older and more people got used to it.
ないです is very common and perfectly fine unless you’re trying to be formal and polite
older japanese natives may say otherwise, it can sometimes be a generational thing. when i first took japanese classes in the mid-90s, my first sensei would 100% correct us when we said it, and were told to say it again with ありません instead. but since then, every other native i’ve been taught by hasn’t complained and often uses it themselves
〜ないです is acceptable. It’s colloquial speech.
It’s basically the same, but ないです sounds less stiff. ありません is a bit literary or business-like. ないです is more conversational-polite style.
Huh. Interesting. I didn’t know it was considered “grammatically wrong” before this revelation. Always thought it functioned a lot like i-adjectives, so it felt natural to allow です for the aforementioned case.
Even for i-adjective negative forms, isn’t it permissible to add at です the end(e.g. 甘くないです、安くないです)? So why the exception?
I hear ない a lot in Japan, rarely, if ever, hear ありません.