there is no chance of/no way of・impossible
Structure
- Verb[stem] + っこない
[Used to express strong denial・っこない often follows potential verbs, できっこない, and わかりっこない・Often used with conditionals, [ても] construction, [て]ばかり construction and なんて]
What is the difference between っこない and もんか?
Hey @Hadros232232 !
We apologize for the late reply!
っこない does not have the sarcastic tone to it like how ものか has and っこない cannot be used for rhetorical questions. We hope that helps!
I don’t understand this answer. The grammar description says that this is attached to masu-stem verbs, and the sentence prompt says [勝つ], but it seems that the answer is using the potential form.
@Slysoft Did you understand the grammar point better by now? Even though most of the time, the potential verbs stem is used for the grammar point also in examples on other websites, sometimes the dictionary verb stem is used, and I cannot figure out why.
I’m having a hard time figuring out how the verb is supposed to be conjugated for this grammar point.
The page has now been updated to simply verb stem + っこない. This grammar point will almost always attach to the stem of the potential form, but there are some exceptions such as for intransitive verbs (state of being) or verbs with noun forms, which is what you’re likely seeing.
E.g. 日本語で書く練習をしないと、日本語で書けるようにはなりっこない
If you do not practice writing in Japanese, there is no way you will become able to write it
なります is the dictionary form of an intransitive verb, and it already has potential meaning without changing form to potential.
Similarly, どんなに勉強したって「は」と「が」の違いなんて分かりっこない。
No matter how much I study, there is no way for me to understand the difference between ‘は’ and ‘が’.
わかります is also the dictionary form of an intransitive verb, carrying a meaning of potential.
Now for noun form exceptions, there’s basically only oneー間違いっこない。Here, you can see both the potential form being used, and noun form (NB it’s 間違い as in a mistake、not 間違います’s stem。）
（私は）彼を彼の弟と間違えっこない。
There’s no way I’d mistake him for his younger brother.
その点は間違いっこない。
There is no mistake about that point.
(think of it as 間違い が ないー that mistake does not exist）
The only exception to all this that I have found is 知りっこない being used instead of 知れっこない。The reason is that 知ります, despite being transitive, behaves like an intransitive verb semantically. Knowing isn’t something you’re actively doing (i.e. I am knowing Mr Tanaka), it’s a state of being. You either already know it or you don’t (i.e. I know Mr Tanaka).
Similarly, like the other intransitive verbs, 知ります already implicitly carries a meaning of potential (you wouldn’t say “I can know Mr Tanaka.”) therefore, it doesn’t need to be in it’s potential form.