When to use ぬ form?

[berrypie]

As I can see from game or anime, Japanese males still use ね (or ねぇ?)for ない, is it true? And, attaching な after a plain verb is quite common too...

Is it quite impolite and young ladies should not use it?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by berrypie

As I can see from game or anime, Japanese males still use ね (or ねぇ?)for ない, is it true? And, attaching な after a plain verb is quite common too...

Is it quite impolite and young ladies should not use it?

You've misread. This thread is about ぬ, not ね.

[berrypie]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

You've misread. This thread is about ぬ, not ね.

I know, and I read that ぬ is not used nowadays. That's why I ask about ね and even な。

ダメですか?

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by berrypie

I know, and I read that ぬ is not used nowadays. That's why I ask about ね and even な。

ダメですか?

If you were my daughter and you used ねー/ねえ to mean ない with me, I'd ground you for a week.

In reality, however, a lot of young Japanese girls do use it when talking to friends, especially other girls. I still don't recommend that you use it, though.

Adding な to affirmative verbs is still pretty much masculine. Then again, some girls do it in real life. I hope you use ね instead.

[berrypie]

Originally Posted by Sashimister

If you were my daughter and you used ねー/ねえ to mean ない with me, I'd ground you for a week.

In reality, however, a lot of young Japanese girls do use it when talking to friends, especially other girls. I still don't recommend that you use it, though.

Adding な to affirmative verbs is still pretty much masculine. Then again, some girls do it in real life. I hope you use ね instead.

わ～い！おじさんが怖いっ！それより、おじさんは厳し い～

Japanese is not my mother language so I can't actually feel how inappropriate it is for a girl like me using な or ね. I can only imagine that using ありません is more elegant.

So, I would like to know how to use imperative form in a feminine way.
For example, guys say "書け" , "書くな" or "書いてくれ"
Should I just say something like "書いて", "書かないで" and "書いてくれて"?

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by berrypie

わ～い！おじさんが怖いっ！それより、おじさんは厳し い～

できるだけ良い日本語を教えるのがおじさんの仕事だか らね。分かるでしょう？こんないいおじさん、そんなに いないよ！

Japanese is not my mother language so I can't actually feel how inappropriate it is for a girl like me using な or ね. I can only imagine that using ありません is more elegant.

When I was in high school, girls seldom would say ねえ/ねー　to mean ない. This is a recent trend of the last 20 years or so. We don't know how long more it will last. 　

So, I would like to know how to use imperative form in a feminine way.
For example, guys say "書け" , "書くな" or "書いてくれ"
Should I just say something like "書いて", "書かないで" and "書いてくれて"?

You won't say 書いてくれて as it makes no sense. You can say the first two.

The easier way to sound feminine, though, is to not use the imperative and use the request form. 書いてください、書かないでください、書いていただけ ますか、etc.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Sashimister

できるだけ良い日本語を教えるのがおじさんの仕事だか らね。分かるでしょう？こんないいおじさん、そんなに いないよ！

This is a good chance for me to ask. I noticed you ended the first sentence basically in plain form, but the second sentence you ended with でしょう, not だろう. Then your third sentence again ended in plain form with ない.

I often feel like doing something similar. だろう just feels weird when I say it, but I hesitate to say でしょう because then it doesn't match with the plain form I've been using with a friend elsewhere.

So this is fine to do? Thanks!

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

This is a good chance for me to ask. I noticed you ended the first sentence basically in plain form, but the second sentence you ended with でしょう, not だろう. Then your third sentence again ended in plain form with ない.

I often feel like doing something similar. だろう just feels weird when I say it, but I hesitate to say でしょう because then it doesn't match with the plain form I've been using with a friend elsewhere.

So this is fine to do? Thanks!

You've raised an interesting point. I guess I hadn't even thought of this だろう/でしょう business.

I know for sure that I couldn't have used だろう when I said わかるでしょう to berrypie. The only female I would use だろう as a question-ender is my sister. The rest are all male, namely my male family members who are younger than me and my old male friends. Seriously, no one else.

To use だろう with a woman, regardless of age, that I only talk to on the internet is simply unthinkable. I would sound way too intimate. Moreover, I don't use だろう as a question ender with any males on the internet, either. This is because I don't talk to my real-life old buddies on the net.

You may use だろう if you're talking to a male friend that you feel very close to even if you don't know him in real life. As in any other language, we change our speech styles as we get to know the other person better.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Sashimister

You've raised an interesting point. I guess I hadn't even thought of this だろう/でしょう business.

I know for sure that I couldn't have used だろう when I said わかるでしょう to berrypie. The only female I would use だろう as a question-ender is my sister. The rest are all male, namely my male family members who are younger than me and my old male friends. Seriously, no one else.

To use だろう with a woman, regardless of age, that I only talk to on the internet is simply unthinkable. I would sound way too intimate. Moreover, I don't use だろう as a question ender with any males on the internet, either. This is because I don't talk to my real-life old buddies on the net.

You may use だろう if you're talking to a male friend that you feel very close to even if you don't know him in real life. As in any other language, we change our speech styles as we get to know the other person better.

So it's OK to mix plain form with でしょう? Like,
そんなこと分からないよ！あすかちゃんも分からないで しょう。
See how I mixed the plain form in the first sentence with what I think is the "polite" form (でしょう) in the second?

Interesting. I've never thought of doing something like this before, and always just kept consistency across sentences!

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

So it's OK to mix plain form with でしょう? Like,
そんなこと分からないよ！あすかちゃんも分からないで しょう。
See how I mixed the plain form in the first sentence with what I think is the "polite" form (でしょう) in the second?

Interesting. I've never thought of doing something like this before, and always just kept consistency across sentences!

「そんなこと分からないよ！あすかちゃんも分からない でしょう。」 sounds pretty natural. To make it sound even more, I'd say でしょ instead of でしょう. That would go with よ better.

I don't think too many native speakers would consider your second sentence as being "polite", though. With ちゃん and 分かる, it sounds fairly informal to me. Had you said something like あすかさんもお分かりにならないでしょう。or あすかさんもご存じないでしょう。, then I would have called it polite (and you would have sounded weird ).

I always seem to have trouble discussing plain/polite/informal/formal with Japanese learners. (This means I have trouble almost every day!) I'm the kind to go facepalm everytime someone tries tell me です/ます is polite or formal because that's considered so boringly average here in Japan.

It's like even though my family have been speaking Japanese for 2,000 years but I sometimes have a first-year Japanese learner tell me what to do with my Japanese. Not talking about you, KyleGoetz, though.