Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 1: 12/18

なくて (Sequence)To not ~ and ~, Not ~ and ~ (Conjugations)

Structure

Verb[ない+ な + くて
[い]Adjective[ + くな + くて
[な]Adjective + では(1)ない + な + くて
Noun + では(1)ない + な + くて

Exceptions:
いい → よくくて
するくて
くるくて

(1) じゃ

Details

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    Standard

About なくて

In Japanese, なくて is a construction that combines ない (in its conjugation form, なく), with the conjunction particle . This results in the same 'and' meaning as the standard form, but with the negative meaning of ない. なくて can be translated as 'to not (A), and…', or 'not (A), and…', depending on what type of word it is used with.

As discussed in our initial lesson about ない, there are two forms of this particular word. One form is an auxiliary verb, and is used with verbs. The other form of ない is an い-Adjective (形容詞(けいようし)), and is used with nouns, な-Adjectives, and い-Adjectives.

The difference between these two, is that the い-Adjective form may have in between it and the word it is connected to (では in the case of nouns and な-Adjectives). With verbs, due to ない being an auxiliary verb, this is not possible.

Caution

なくて is very similar to ないで, another structure that is regularly used with verbs (but may not be used with nouns or adjectives). ないで is far more common when expressing 'not doing' something, while なくて tends to be used almost exclusively for expressing reasons/causes.

  • トーマスまだプレゼントあげないで
    Please don't give Thomas his present yet. (No particular reason, simply implies 'without doing')
  • もらクッキー(おとうと)あげなくて(いもうと)あげ
    I did not give the cookie I got to my brother, but to my sister. (Implies a specific reason for not giving it to the brother)

Examples

--:--

    なる → ならなくて

    to become → to not become and...

    (きら)(きら)いではなくて

    dislike → not dislike and...

    病気(びょうき)病気(びょうき)じゃなくて

    illness → not an illness and...

    (たか)(たか)くなくて

    expensive/tall → not expensive/tall and...

    いいよくなくて

    good → not good and...

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      なくて – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (18 in total)

      • Pushindawood

        Pushindawood

        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

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

      • pasi

        pasi

        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”).

      • Pushindawood

        Pushindawood

        @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!

      • Mipri

        Mipri

        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.

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        @Mipri
        Hey

        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:

      • Howl_UK

        Howl_UK

        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.

      • Superpnut

        Superpnut

        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?

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        @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

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

      • Superpnut

        Superpnut

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

      • winningtofu

        winningtofu

        image909×103 9.32 KB

        hey so can’t 汚れ technicall...
      • evil_eye

        evil_eye

        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

      • Asher

        Asher

        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 .

      • Lederhosen42

        Lederhosen42

        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.

      • KanjiCollector

        KanjiCollector

        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.

      • Kattosan

        Kattosan

        この風呂は汚れはなくて、いつもいい匂いがする。

        I’m a bit confused, isn’t 汚れ (よごれ) also a noun? Why wouldn’t it be correct? I get it that they’re trying to tell me that it’s supposed to be a verb in this case (汚れる), but it confused me a little bit. Maybe they could’ve used another word that didn’t hold this duality?

        https://jisho.org/word/汚れ-1

      • BreadmanNin

        BreadmanNin

        Hi everyone. I’m confused about one of the example sentences for this grammar point. I understand all the example sentences except this one:

        完璧かんぺき完璧かんぺきでなくて

        完璧 is a な-adjective. According to the structure section, な-adjectives should be followed by ではなくて or じゃなくて. Why is 完璧 followed by でなくて? I don’t see でなくて anywhere else on the page either. Am I overlooking something?

      • Vaminta

        Vaminta

        Couldn’t the negative te form of なる be ならなくて or ならないで
        but only ならなくて is marked as correct

      • casual

        casual

        Agreed, Bunpro does not explain this in order.

        It’s mentioned a few dozen lessons down the line in だけでなく (JLPT N4) | Bunpro

        は is regularly dropped from では expressions, or it may also be changed to じゃ, for ease of pronunciation.

        Also if you look carefully at the first post of this topic, it has で(は) with brackets. Looks like this information was part of the structure section 5 years ago, but got lost at some point.

      • BreadmanNin

        BreadmanNin

        Ah, perfect. Thank you so much. That clears everything up.

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