English translation:
is not impossible
it doesn’t mean that it isn’t
Structure:
Verb[ ない ] + ことはない
いAdj[ くない ] + ことはない
Noun + ではない + ことはない
なAdj + ではない + ことはない
Explanation:
[Often used with potential form of a verb・Used to express feelings of half-heartedness]
In a sentence like this:
吉田: 「あなたは誕生日ケーキをカットしてみたい？」
山田:「 僕にもできないことはないけど、君がやった方がいいと思う。」[できる]
Could I replace it with できない訳じゃない?
I feel like I’m always confused about when I can only use one or the other.
I feel like I’m always confused about when I can only use one or the other.
You’re not alone. I frequently mixed these up (and several others) when I was first learning them.
For this example, I don’t think わけじゃない fits as well as ないことはない. It’s hard to be sure without knowing the context, but 山田さん sounds like they might be expressing deference with regards to cutting the birthday cake. I’m not sure whose birthday it is in this case, nor what the customs are in Japan, but this could be polite deference, or it could be 山田さん genuinely just doesn’t care about cutting the cake and is suggesting 吉田さん do it instead.
わけ literally means something like “a conclusion based on reason.” ～わけじゃない could be rendered as , “… (the preceding phrase) is not a (valid) conclusion/inference,” or, “it’s not the case that … (the preceding phrase) is a (valid) conclusion/inference.” I sometimes use these stiff, “wooden” translations in my head to help better understand why わけ is used over against other things.
僕にもできないわけじゃない thus would mean something like, “it’s not the case that I can’t cut the cake,” whereas できないことはない is more like, “it’s not a matter of me being unable to cut the cake.” In the first case, the speaker is basically saying there’s nothing preventing them from cutting the cake, but in the second they’re saying whether they can or not has little or nothing to do with it. The difference can be subtle. Let me Anglicize the feeling of each a little better.
できないわけじゃない → I’m not saying that I can’t
できないことはない → I could or I couldn’t, makes no difference to me
A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar further explains that わけではない is “a phrase which is used to deny what is implied in the previous or following statement.” In other words, 吉田さん’s asking if 山田さん would like to cut the cake would somehow need to imply that 山田さん cannot. Or, 山田さん would need to go on to say something that would logically fit that denial.
One other thing to consider is that ないことはない is a double negative, whereas わけじゃない is not. That difference in nuance is also expressed in the equivalent English, so the two would not be interchangeable from that perspective, either. (Edit: That’s a general observation about the grammar points not specific to the example sentence, which of course would be a double negative either way.)
In regards to the sentence ここは危ないことはないけど、気を付けたほうがいい
This probably has more to do with how I think about/ categorize い-adjectives like 危ない and 少ない, but to me this reads as “It`s not that this place is dangerous, but you should be careful.” rather than the rest of the double negative sentences given.
Would using い-ajectives as they are still carry the same nuance of this grammar point? e.g.: 映画は世界で一番面白いことはないけど、笑った。 (“It`s not that the movie is the funniest in the world, but I laughed.”)
Or are adjectives like 危ない special?
I hope the question makes sense!
Came for the same reason. 危ない doesn’t strike me as the ない form of the adjective.
May I ask for some clarification?