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JLPT N5Verb Forms

なかった Form— Plain Past Negative

The plain (casual) past negative — "did not ~". Used among friends or in plain writing; functionally equivalent to the polite ませんでした.

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Pro lessonUNIT 10 · VERB FORMS

Structure · 形

[ない form] → drop the final い + かった

Examples · 例文

  • あの本は読まなかった。

    Ano hon wa yomanakatta.

    I didn't read that book.

    読まない → drop い → 読まなかった.

  • 昨日は来なかったね。

    Kinou wa konakatta ne.

    You didn't come yesterday, did you?

    来る is irregular: negative is こない (konai) → こなかった.

  • 日曜日は勉強しなかった。

    Nichiyoubi wa benkyou shinakatta.

    I didn't study on Sunday.

    勉強しない → drop い → 勉強しなかった (plain past negative).

Usage notes · 注意

  • い-Adjective Logic: the plain negative (〜ない) behaves like an い-adjective, so it forms the past by い→かった — exactly like an い-adjective (高い→高かった).
  • Stacking: this logic chains — 食べたくない (don't want to eat) → 食べたくなかった (didn't want to eat).

Commonly confused with

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

vsませんでした (polite past negative)

なかった is plain/casual; ませんでした is polite. 読まなかった vs 読みませんでした — same meaning, different register.

More verb forms

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