Japanese sentences are classified in three by the type of predicates;
1. Noun predicate sentences
2. Adjective predicate sentences (I-adjectives and Na-adjectives)
3. Verb predicate sentences
Today, too, we are going to learn “1. Noun predicate sentences”. Yesterday’s “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.” is a positive sentence. A negative sentence is as follows;
[Noun1]wa [Noun2]dewa arimasen.
“Arimasen” is actually a negative form of a verb “aru/arimasu” that means something exists. However, now we are learning noun predicate sentences, not verb predicate sentences. Therefore, I recommend you just remember “dewa arimasen” like a one word. In conversations, “dewa arimasen” is usually contracted to be “ja arimasen”.
Let’s look at the sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]dewa arimasen.”
-Noun1: a name of something.
-wa: this is the particle (post position) to indicate that preceding word is the topic of the sentence. When the topic and the subject are identical in the sentence, “-wa” can be a subject marker as well as topic marker.
-Noun2: a name of something.
-dewa arimasen (-ja arimasen): Being placed at the end of a sentence, this functions to make the sentence present-negative. This ending is polite. Do not use the short form “dewa nai (ja nai)” for an ending of the sentence because it sounds rude.
Let’s make a noun predicate sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]dewa arimasen.” by putting real Japanese words.
Watashi: I (prenoun)
wa: topic marker (particle) — also subject marker in this case
Koukousei : a high school student. Although its spelling is “koukousei”, the pronunciation is like “Koh-koh-se-e”
dewa arimasen: present-negative, polite ending
Watashi wa Koukousei dewa arimasen. (I am not a high school student.)
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