Tuesday 22 December 2015

grammar - Is -はない just another way of saying -じゃありません?


In the sentence: 彼の論文には大した価値はない


Is the -はない another way of saying -じゃありません or -ではない?
And is it read as wanai or hanai?



Answer



I would advise you to read up on the differences between all conjugations of the copula だ/である/です and the existence verbs いる and ある.





  1. "~はない" (read as "wa nai") means "~ is not present(Lit: not exist)".


    The ない is the negated form of the existence verb ある.




  2. "~ではない" (de wa nai) means "it is not ~"


    ではない is the negated form of the copula (である). It can also be colloquially shorted to じゃない. The polite form is ではありません, and it's corresponding shortened form is じゃありません.




So to answer your question more directly, ~はない is not the same as じゃありません/ではない.



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