食べていないんです shortened to 食べてないん?

6 comments

1. The dropping of “desu” simply makes it less formal, but it otherwise means the same thing. Both are valid ways to say it, it just depends on to whom you’re saying it that you’d modify it.

2. In standard Japanese it is more commonly shortened to 食べてないの？ for informal settings but 食べてないん？ is used in kansai dialect and possibly others as well. All have the same meaning.

3. です　becomes でしょ here, which is short/slightly informal for でしょう. It’s the volition form, it’s the part that means “right?” in a question but it can also mean “want to be” or “will be”.

   If you drop です entirely the ん usually would be の. Indeed のです means the same as んです. Just ん on its own would be unusual but not impossible. Just dialectal.

4. I’m pretty sure that if you drop the desu you can’t contract the no to n. So

   ‘tabenai no?’

   In the sentence you’re looking at, you have ‘tabenai n deshoo?’ (gah, Hepburn… ><) This is a pretty standard shift to the consultative form and so uses that form of the copula.

   Also, probably should note that the post title has ‘tabete inai n desu’ and the sentence you provided was ‘tabenai n deshoo’. The first is negative te form, the second is the simple negative form.

5. Could someone clarify this for me?

   I thought の was an explanatory particle, and that when used in a question it asks for an explanation. It seems to be acting like ね here.

   I would’ve read たべないん as “Why haven’t you eaten anything since yesterday?” Is that incorrect?

6. > 昨日から何も食べないんでしょ

   For starters, this sentence is grammatically incorrect. 「食べない」is the negative form of 「食べる」, which means “to eat”.

   I *haven’t eaten* anything since yesterday = 昨日から何も食べ***ていない***。

   Here, ***haven’t eaten*** = 食べ***ていない***

   If one was to translate the original sentence, it would mean “I don’t eat since yesterday”, which is terrible grammar. 「昨日から何も食べていないんでしょう」would be fine, though.