なくて Negative て-form - Conjugations - Grammar Discussion

to not…and…
not…and…

Structure

  • Verb[な] + くて
    行く → 行か なくて
  • い-Adj[ ] + く なくて
    面白い → 面白く なくて
  • な-Adj + で(は) なくて /じゃ なくて
    しずか → しずかで(は) なくて → しずかじゃ なくて
  • Noun + で(は) なくて /じゃ なくて
    先生 → 先生で(は) なくて → 先生じゃ なくて

:warning:︎Exceptions​:warning:︎:
いい → よく なくて
する → し なくて
くる → こ なくて

[Japanese verbs have two negative て-forms - なくて and ないで. なくて is more limited and is mostly used to express reason/cause]

[Adjectives and nouns only have the なくて form]

View on Bunpro

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Is there a reason why 眠い requires you to prompt the whole word and some of the sentences only ask for the ending? For いい it makes sense of course but it’s a bit unfortunate that the others don’t seem to be consistent. Maybe add one of those nice warning texts to them “maybe you forgot to start with the actual word” (or alternatively, “we already added the beginning for you”).

@pasi Hey! All of the review questions for this grammar point require that you conjugate the verb or the adjective in your answer. You should be seeing the verb or adjective that requires conjugation at the end of the Japanese sentence in brackets. If you do not see a word in brackets then you do not need to conjugate anything. Please let us know which sentences you are seeing these inconsistencies and we will be sure to get them corrected. Cheers!

Hello I’ve been following the regular lesson order on bunpro and I wanna ask why なくて is after
なくてはいけない and なくてはならない.
I’ve been strugeling with both of those point because I did not understand what なくて was.
After some reading etc. I got it but now seeing this later I fell like the struggle could have been avoided.

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@Mipri
Hey :blush:

Hello I’ve been following the regular lesson order on bunpro and I wanna ask why なくて is after
なくてはいけない and なくてはならない.

This is a good question. The idea is that explaining some concepts at a certain level might be too much at once, especially when the grammar point is used very often, or is very important, and there is no real need to understand inner working to use it.

This is a very common approach in textbooks. For example, in “Genki” student learns なければいけない before learning the ば form. Or learning ましょう before the volitional form.

By the way, you might find this interesting:

I hope it helps,
Cheers!

PS
(Though, I think it might be good idea to link the “background” for those who want to understand a bit more!)
PS2
I have added the additional information :slight_smile:

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Similarly, half the stuff you learn in Chapter 1 of Genki (Greetings) is honorific/humble stuff. You don’t really need to know how おやすみなさい or おかえりなさい are formed and you are not taught that until halfway through book 2. It’s worth just rote-learning stuff that’s super common rather than trying to understand it at that level.

What is the difference between じゃなくて and ではなくて?
Because for this one it wants じゃ
病気びょうき病気びょうきじゃなくて

But for this one it wants では
医者いしゃ医者いしゃではなくて

But in the lesson point itself it just only says you use では so I’m kind of confused as the rule?

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@Superpnut
Hey!
You can think of じゃ as casual contraction of では.
Just like ではない and じゃない.

You might also see でなくて without は, which is also correct .

Cheers :slight_smile:

PS
You can see information like this in the structure section:


The 1 super script indicates that では can be replaced with expression that is super scripted at the bottom of the structure section (じゃ here).

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OOOHH okay I didn’t know what the numbers really showed. I think I get it now I’m just a bit slow :slight_smile:

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hey so can’t 汚れ technically be a noun? and if so, could there be another explanation as to why it’s unnatural to have a は there

This section contains incorrect information:
it says [い]Adjective[ない] + な + くて

Except い adjectives are always conjugated with くなくて, not なくて

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Thanks for letting us know about the error! I have just fixed it. It looks like ない was crossed out, when it was just い that should have been crossed out with く following it :ok_hand:.

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I was wondering if I could get some clarification on the caution section of this page discussing the difference between なくて and ないで:

The page states that なくて is (almost always) used exclusively when providing an explanation, whereas ないで’s usage is more for generally “not doing [verb].” But example sentences earlier on the page have なくて being used to simply state “thing is not [quality/noun] and also not [quality/noun]” or “thing is not [quality/noun] and is [quality/noun].”

Does this “rule” for なくて only apply when used with verbs? I ask because it seems like the section might be specifically addressing usage with verbs since it mentions ないで is used with verbs, but I wasn’t sure.

Just came here to say that I also think なくて should be explained before なくてはいけない and なくてはならない. I spent literally two extra weeks drilling the なくてはいけない and なくてはならない into my head.

I understand some people may be affected by “some concepts at a certain level might be too much at once” but others like myself are here to learn, the correct way. Why teach out of order.

I cant wrap my head around why its set up this way. It would make sense if なくて was taught wayyy down the line but its only a few lessons away?
なくて - N4 Section 1/10
なくてはいけない and なくてはならない - N5 Section 9/10

My recommendation, just swap them with eachother. If that doesnt work, maybe put a little blurb saying this is a “secondary” step in this grammar.