Negative verb

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A negative verb is a type of auxiliary with help of which negative forms of verbs are formed. The action itself has no personal endings, while the negative verb takes the inflection. The English auxiliary "don't" or "doesn't" combined with a pronoun performs a similar function: one says "we don't make", where "make" has no inflection, and "we don't" is essentially a negative verb, which indicates the person "we" (contrast "he doesn't" with a different person).

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[edit] Negative Verb in Uralic Languages

The negative verb is typical of the Uralic languages. Uralic languages inflect by person, thus one word, the negative verb corresponds to e.g. "I don't" (Finnish en) or "doesn't" (ei).

[edit] Finnish

The negative verb is conjugated in moods and person forms in Finnish. In the present tense, the form of the main verb is just the stem of the present form without a personal ending, e.g. lähden – en lähde ’I leave’ – ’I do not leave’, menisit – et menisi ’you would go’ – ’you would not go’, syönee – ei syöne ’he/she may eat’ – ’he/she may not eat’, ottakaamme – älkäämme ottako ’let us take’ – ’let us not take’. In the imperfect tense, the form of the main verb is the past participle, e.g. otin – en ottanut ’I took’ – ’I did not take’, otimme – emme ottaneet ’we took’ – ’we did not take’.

Indicative, conditional, and potential

Person Singular Plural
1. en emme
2. et ette
3. ei eivät

Imperative

Person Singular Plural
1. - älkäämme
2. älä älkää
3. älköön älkööt

[edit] Estonian

Although the negative verb is conjugated for mood and person in Estonian, the indicative, conditional and potential no longer have distintictive forms for each person (cf. the Finnish negative verb above).

Indicative, conditional, and modus obliquus

Person Singular Plural
1. ei ei
2. ei ei
3. ei ei

Imperative

Person Singular Plural
1. - ärgem
2. ära ärge
3. ärgu ärgu

[edit] Inari Sami

The negative verb is conjugated in moods and person forms in Inari Sami.

Indicative, conditional, and potential mood

Person Singular Dual Plural
1. jie´m eän ep
2. jie´h eppee eppeđ
3. ij eä´vá eä

Imperative

Person Singular Dual Plural
1. eällum eäl´loon eällup
2. ele ellee elleđ
3. eä´lus eällus eällus

[edit] Northern Sami

The negative verb is conjugated in moods and person forms in Northern Sami.

Indicative, conditional, and potential mood

Person Singular Dual Plural
1. in ean eat
2. it eahppi ehpet
3. ii eaba eai

Imperative

Person Singular Dual Plural
1. allon allu allot
2. ale alli allet
3. allos alloska alloset

[edit] Japanese

See also: Japanese_verb_conjugations#Negative


The basic pattern is u becomes anai.

Type Negative Examples Negative
Irregular verbs
suru shinai benkyō suru benkyō shinai
kuru konai
aru nai
da de wa nai

ja nai
masu stem masen ikimasu (go, polite) ikimasen
Regular verbs
u wanai tsukau (use) tsukawanai
ku kanai yaku (burn) yakanai
gu ganai oyogu (swim) oyoganai
su sanai shimesu (show) shimesanai
tsu tanai matsu (wait) matanai
nu nanai shinu (die) shinanai
bu banai yobu (call) yobanai
mu manai yomu (read) yomanai
ru (consonant stem) ranai hashiru (run) hashiranai
iru, eru (vowel stem) inai, enai kigaeru (change clothes) kigaenai
Adjectives
i adjectives ku nai itai (painful) itakunai
na adjectives de wa nai

ja nai

 kantan kantan de wa nai

kantan ja nai
  • The nai ending conjugates in two ways.
    1. As an i adjective. For example the past tense of tabenai is tabenakatta and the te form is tabenakute.
    2. There is a special te form made by adding de. For example, tabenaide. This is used, for example, in tabenaide kudasai: "Please don't eat (this)".

[edit] Dravidian languages

[edit] West Flemish

West Flemish makes use of it as well:

Singular Plural
nink I don't niew we don't
nèjg you don't nèjg you don't
nieg one doesn't nèns they don't
Languages