The polite negative — the 〜ません form — is the don't / won't you use in polite conversation: with strangers, customers, teachers, and anyone you are not close to. It is the negative of the 〜ます form, and the polite counterpart of the casual 〜ない. And it comes with a gift: it is the easiest negative in the language.
The rule: swap ます → ません
Take any verb's ます-form, and change ます to ません. That is the entire operation. There is no sound-change, no vowel-row shift, no わ, and no irregular readings to trip on — the hard work all happened when you built the ます-stem, and the polite negative just rides on top of it.
| Dictionary | Polite (〜ます) | Polite negative (〜ません) |
|---|---|---|
| 食べる | 食べます | 食べません |
| 行く | 行きます | 行きません |
| 飲む | 飲みます | 飲みません |
| 買う | 買います | 買いません |
| 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） |
Look at 買う. In the plain negative it was the treacherous 買わない — you had to remember the わ. But 買いません patterns exactly like 食べません, because the ます-stem 買い was already settled. Even 来る, whose plain negative hides the reading こない, is simply 来ません（きません） here. Every verb behaves the same. This regularity is the real reason textbooks teach the polite forms first: there are no exceptions to slow a beginner down.
私はタバコを吸いません。
watashi wa tabako o suimasen
I don't smoke.
明日は働きません。休みです。
ashita wa hatarakimasen. yasumi desu
I'm not working tomorrow. It's my day off.
ダイエット中なので、夜は何も食べません。
daietto-chū na node, yoru wa nani mo tabemasen
I'm on a diet, so I don't eat anything at night.
More everyday uses
すみません、日本語はあまり話しません。
sumimasen, nihongo wa amari hanashimasen
Sorry, I don't speak much Japanese.
コーヒーは飲みません。お茶をください。
kōhī wa nomimasen. ocha o kudasai
I don't drink coffee. Green tea, please.
Note あまり in the first sentence: あまり ((not) much / not very) demands a negative verb to complete it, so あまり…ません is a fixed team — あまり話しません, not ×あまり話します.
〜ませんか: the polite negative that invites
Here is the pragmatic twist that a bare "not" meaning would never predict. Attach the question particle か to 〜ません and you get 〜ませんか, which is not really a negative question at all — it is a warm invitation, roughly English won't you...? / would you like to...?
一緒にお昼を食べませんか。
issho ni ohiru o tabemasen ka
Won't you have lunch with me?
週末、映画を見に行きませんか。
shūmatsu, eiga o mi ni ikimasen ka
Would you like to go see a movie this weekend?
Why does a negative make an invitation more inviting? Because phrasing it in the negative leaves the other person's no fully on the table — you are asking "is it not the case that you'd come?" rather than pressing "you'll come, right?". That built-in room to decline is exactly what makes it polite. Compare the flat 行きますか (are you going? — a bare fact-check) with 行きませんか (won't you go along? — an offer). English does the same trick with won't you join us?, so the logic is familiar even if the negative surface looks odd at first. This makes 〜ませんか the backbone of gentle suggestions in Japanese.
To accept such an invitation you agree in the affirmative — はい / ええ plus an enthusiastic tag — and to decline you soften rather than fire back a blunt いいえ, which would sound cold:
「一緒に行きませんか。」「はい、ぜひ。」
issho ni ikimasen ka? — hai, zehi
'Won't you come along?' 'Yes, I'd love to.'
「今晩、飲みに行きませんか。」「すみません、今日はちょっと…。」
konban, nomi ni ikimasen ka? — sumimasen, kyō wa chotto…
'Want to go for a drink tonight?' 'Sorry, today's a bit… (not great).'
Two ways to be polite: 〜ません and 〜ないです
Japanese quietly offers a second polite negative. Because the plain 〜ない behaves like an い-adjective, you can make it polite the adjective way — by adding です — giving 行かないです. So both 行きません and 行かないです are correct, polite ways to say I'm not going.
いいえ、あまり行かないです。
iie, amari ikanai desu
No, I don't really go (there much).
The difference is register texture, not correctness. 〜ません is a shade more formal and is the standard textbook first form; 〜ないです is extremely common in everyday polite speech, and especially handy when the rest of your sentence was already plain and you round it off with です. Use whichever fits the moment — just don't blend them into ×〜ないません.
The past: 〜ませんでした
To put the polite negative in the past, ません becomes ませんでした — 食べませんでした (didn't eat), 行きませんでした (didn't go). It gets its own page (past negative 〜ませんでした); for now just register that the polite system marks past-negative by adding でした, unlike the plain 〜ない which will take かった instead.
昨日は忙しくて、昼ごはんを食べませんでした。
kinō wa isogashikute, hirugohan o tabemasen deshita
I was busy yesterday and didn't eat lunch.
Common mistakes
❌ 私は肉を食べないません。
Incorrect — don't stack the plain negative and ません; ません replaces ます, not 〜ない.
✅ 私は肉を食べません。
watashi wa niku o tabemasen
I don't eat meat.
❌ タバコを吸わません。
Incorrect — ません attaches to the い-row ます-stem 吸い, not the あ-row negative stem 吸わ.
✅ タバコを吸いません。
tabako o suimasen
I don't smoke.
❌ 田中さんはくません。
Incorrect — the ます-stem of 来る is き, so it is read きません, never kimasen 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。」
Incorrect — answering a polite 〜ますか question with a casual plain negative clashes in register.
✅ 「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.'
That last one is the most common real-world slip: a polite question deserves a polite answer. When someone speaks to you in 〜ますか, stay on the polite ladder and reply with 〜ます / 〜ません — dropping to plain 〜ない mid-conversation reads as abrupt.
Key takeaways
- 〜ません = ます → ません on the ます-stem. No sound-changes, no exceptions.
- Because it rides the ます-stem, even 買う (買いません) and 来る (来ません／きません) are perfectly regular.
- あまり pairs with the negative: あまり…ません.
- 〜ませんか softens a request into an invitation: 一緒に行きませんか (won't you come along?).
- Keep register consistent: answer a 〜ますか question with 〜ません, not casual 〜ない.
Now practice Japanese
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- Plain Negative 〜ないN5 — The casual 'don't / won't' form — how 〜ない replaces the verb ending, why 買う becomes 買わない, and why it then behaves like an adjective.
- 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.
- Polite Past-Negative 〜ませんでしたN5 — How to form the polite past-negative by stacking the polite negative 〜ません and the past copula でした — sound-change-free and identical in shape for every verb.
- Polite Questions with 〜ますかN5 — How the particle か turns any polite statement into a question with no inversion and no 'do'-support — plus the 〜ませんか invitation and the 〜ましょうか offer.