An introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language

66 CHAPTER 2. VERB GRAMMAR

irregular meaning + past tense of actual past tense

good +

negation meaning + past tense of actual past tense

So now we can also form the plain negative past for verbs, using

+ ”past tense of ”, , noting that for the verb things

are, of course, different:

negative negative past tense

past tense negative past tense

Irregular past tense negative past tense

Again, of the irregular verbs is the most irregular, its negative

past form simply being the past form of , rather than the typical

inflection. In several major dialects this isn’t actually the case,

and for instance in the Kansaiben dialect (where the word is used in-

stead of ) inflects like any other verb, with a negative form

. Why standard Japanese has this ’dual nature’ for is mainly
because of historic use (languages serve the people using it, and if the use
changes, the language changes). However, we can at least look at why this