There are two ways to make a verb negative in Japanese, and the choice between them is not about meaning — it is about politeness. 行かない and 行きません both mean exactly doesn't go / won't go; you pick between them the same way you pick between "yeah" and "no, thank you" in English — by reading the room. This page teaches both as a matched pair so you never confuse a register difference for a meaning difference. As the overview established, both are the non-past negative of the verb — the negativity is baked into the ending, not added as a word.
The plain negative: 〜ない (casual)
The plain negative is what you use with friends, family, in a diary, or inside a longer clause. Building it depends on the verb class:
| Class | Rule | Dictionary | Plain negative |
|---|---|---|---|
| godan | final kana → あ-row + ない | 飲む（のむ） | 飲まない |
| godan | 書く（かく） | 書かない | |
| godan | 話す（はなす） | 話さない | |
| ichidan | drop る + ない | 見る（みる） | 見ない |
| ichidan | 食べる（たべる） | 食べない | |
| irregular | fixed forms | する | しない |
| irregular | 来る（くる） | 来ない（こない） |
お酒は飲まない。運転するから。
osake wa nomanai. unten suru kara
I'm not drinking — I'm driving.
私はホラー映画は見ない。
watashi wa horā eiga wa minai
I don't watch horror movies.
週末は何もしない。ずっと寝てる。
shūmatsu wa nani mo shinai. zutto neteru
I don't do anything on weekends. I just sleep.
Note the reading of 来ない — it is こない, not kunai; the kanji keeps looking like its dictionary reading くる, but the negative stem is こ. The full class-by-class drill lives on forming 〜ない.
The polite negative: 〜ません
The polite negative rides on the ます-form. Take any verb's ます-form and swap ます → ません. That is the entire operation — no sound-changes, no exceptions, because the hard work already happened when you built the ます-stem.
| Dictionary | Polite (〜ます) | Polite negative (〜ません) |
|---|---|---|
| 飲む | 飲みます | 飲みません |
| 見る | 見ます | 見ません |
| する | します | しません |
| 来る（くる） | 来ます（きます） | 来ません（きません） |
すみません、お酒は飲みません。
sumimasen, osake wa nomimasen
Sorry, I don't drink.
日曜日は働きません。
nichiyōbi wa hatarakimasen
I don't work on Sundays.
Side by side: same meaning, two registers
Line the two up and the picture is clean — one meaning, two politeness levels:
| Meaning | Plain (casual) | Polite |
|---|---|---|
| doesn't drink | 飲まない | 飲みません |
| doesn't watch | 見ない | 見ません |
| doesn't do | しない | しません |
| doesn't come | 来ない（こない） | 来ません（きません） |
Use the plain form with people you are close to, and — importantly — inside subordinate clauses even in otherwise polite speech, since the plain form is the default anywhere but the final verb of a polite sentence. Use 〜ません as the final verb when speaking to strangers, customers, teachers, or anyone you are keeping a respectful distance from. The wider choice between the two ladders is laid out on plain vs polite.
あまりテレビを見ないから、そのドラマは知らない。
amari terebi o minai kara, sono dorama wa shiranai
I don't really watch TV, so I don't know that drama.
The whole godan rule — and the one わ wrinkle
For the plain negative, the entire godan rule is: take the dictionary form's last kana and slide it down to its あ-row partner, then add ない. く → か (書かない), む → ま (飲まない), す → さ (話さない), る → ら (取らない). If you can walk the godan sound rows, you already own it.
There is exactly one wrinkle. Godan verbs ending in a bare う — 買う（かう）, 会う（あう）, 言う（いう）— do not take あ. They insert わ:
この値段じゃ、誰も買わないよ。
kono nedan ja, dare mo kawanai yo
Nobody's going to buy it at this price.
彼にはもう会わない。
kare ni wa mō awanai
I'm not going to see him again.
This わ is a fossil: these verbs once ended in a /w/ sound (an old kawu), and it survives today only right before ない. So 買う → 買わない, never ×買あない. The good news is that the polite side has no such trap — because 〜ません rides the い-row ます-stem, 買う is simply the regular 買いません. That regularity is exactly why textbooks teach polite forms first.
Common mistakes
❌ お酒を飲みない。
Incorrect — 飲み is the い-row ます-stem; the plain negative needs the あ-row 飲ま.
✅ お酒を飲まない。
osake o nomanai
I don't drink alcohol.
❌ 何も買あない。
Incorrect — a bare-う verb inserts わ, not あ.
✅ 何も買わない。
nani mo kawanai
I'm not buying anything.
❌ 田中さんはくません。
Incorrect — the ます-stem of 来る is き, read きません, never kumasen from く.
✅ 田中さんは来ません。
Tanaka-san wa kimasen
Tanaka isn't coming.
❌ 「明日、行きますか。」「いや、行かない。」
Register clash — a polite 〜ますか question deserves a polite answer, not a casual plain negative.
✅ 「明日、行きますか。」「いいえ、行きません。」
ashita, ikimasu ka? — iie, ikimasen
'Are you going tomorrow?' 'No, I'm not.'
Key takeaways
- Plain 〜ない (casual) and polite 〜ません are the same non-past negative at two politeness levels.
- Plain: godan → あ-row + ない (飲まない); ichidan → drop る + ない (見ない); irregular → しない, 来ない（こない）.
- Polite: just swap ます → ません on the ます-stem — no sound-changes, even for 買います and 来ません.
- The one plain-negative trap is う → わ: 買わない, never ×買あない. The polite side dodges it entirely.
- Keep register consistent: answer 〜ますか with 〜ません, not casual 〜ない.
Now practice Japanese
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- How Japanese Says 'Not': OverviewN5 — The whole negation system at a glance — why Japanese has no word for 'not', and how verbs (〜ない), i-adjectives (〜くない), and nouns (じゃない) each morph into three parallel negative tracks that all end in ない.
- Conjugating 〜ない: Past, te-form, AdverbialN4 — Once a verb is negated with ない, that ない inflects exactly like an い-adjective — so past (なかった), te-form (なくて), adverbial (なく), and conditional (なければ) all fall out of one rule you already know.
- The ます Polite FormN5 — How 〜ます turns a verb into its polite non-past form — the register-neutral default you use with strangers — without changing the verb's meaning at all.