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JLPT N3Modal Expressions

～まい— Surely Not / I Won't

A formal, somewhat literary auxiliary with two uses: negative volition ('I will not / I have no intention of') and negative conjecture ('probably not / surely not'). It is the negative counterpart of ～う/よう (volitional) and ～だろう (conjecture). It sounds stiff and written; in daily speech people prefer ～ないつもりだ or ～ないだろう.

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Pro lessonUNIT 90 · MODAL EXPRESSIONS

Structure · 形

[Verb dictionary form] + まい (Group 1); [Verb ます-stem] + まい (Group 2/irregular, e.g. 食べまい/すまい/来まい)

Examples · 例文

  • あんな店には二度と行くまい。

    Anna mise ni wa nido to iku mai.

    I will never go to a shop like that again.

    行く + まい expresses a firm negative intention ('I won't go')

  • 彼はもう来まい。

    Kare wa mou ko mai.

    He probably won't come anymore.

    来 (kuru→ko) + まい here is negative conjecture ('surely won't come')

  • 雨は降るまいと思って傘を持たなかった。

    Ame wa furu mai to omotte kasa wo motanakatta.

    Thinking it surely wouldn't rain, I didn't bring an umbrella.

    降る + まい = 'probably won't', used with と思う for a guess

Usage notes · 注意

  • Register: formal/literary; rare in casual speech.
  • Group 2 verbs allow both 食べまい and 食べるまい; the ます-stem form is more traditional.
  • Irregular: する→すまい/しまい, 来る→来(こ)まい/来るまい.
  • Volition まい is only 1st person; conjecture まい is used for 3rd person or things.

Commonly confused with

The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones ～まい is tested against.

vsないつもりだ

まい states negative intent in one stiff word; ～ないつもりだ is the everyday, neutral way to say the same thing.

vsないだろう

As conjecture, まい means the same as ～ないだろう but is more formal/written and carries stronger conviction.

More modal expressions

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