grammar - Negation with ではありません vs. じゃない

I tried to say "I'm not a high school student". But I read you can use じゃない to 'deny' something. In this case which one should I use? ではありません or じゃない?

私{わたし}はこうこうの学生{がくせい}ではありません。or 私{わたし}はこうこうの学生{がくせい}じゃないです。?

Answer

First of all, you would use では, not でわ. It's the particle は, the same one as 私は at the beginning of your sentence.

Second, you have many options here. じゃ is just a contraction of では, and ない is just the informal form of ありません. So you have four choices that are all correct.

• じゃない　→　most informal


• ではない


• じゃありません



• ではありません　→　most formal

So it really depends on the context, who you're speaking to, and how formal you want to be. Whether or not you want to say では・じゃないです instead of just では・じゃない is another issue, but you may want to look at this topic regarding that.