If you want to say, “I am a Japanese person” in formal Japanese, you could say, “わたしは　にほんじんです” (watashiwa nihonjindes). However, how do you say the opposite of that? How do you say, “I am not a Japanese person” in formal Japanese? You can say this in Japanese as, “わたしは　にほんじんじゃありません” (watashiwa nihonjin ja arimasen).

As you see in this sentence, the ja arimasen (じゃありません) has replaced the des (です). In addition, the ja arimasen (じゃありません) comes right after the noun. You can form the negative form of any sentence that has a noun. I’ll talk about negating sentences with adjectives in another post.

Just so you know, jaa arimasen (じゃありません) is the contracted form of negating a sentence. The uncontracted form is dewa (でわ). Using the example above, I am not a Japanese person is, “わたしは　にほんじんでわありません” (watashiwa nihonjin dewa arimasen).

Subjects can be dropped in Japanese. Therefore, the sentence, “I am a Japanese person” can have the “I” dropped if it’s obvious that you’re doing the talking. Simply saying, “にほんじんです” is adequate enough. This is especially true when you’re asking people questions in Japanese. You can ask, “Are you a Japanese person?” by asking, “にほんじんですか” (nihonjin deska). The Japanese word for “you” in Japanese is “anata” (あなた). You’re free to include anata (あなた) as the subject of the sentence when you’re asking someone a question, but it’s a bit redundant.

Des (です) is a flexible verb. You can use des (です) to say, “am”, “are”, and “is”. For example the sentence, “Misora is ten years old” in Japanese is “みそらは　じゅっさいです“. The same goes for the negative form of des (です) which is jaarimasen (じゃありません). One last thing, before I go, des (です) and jaarimasen (じゃありません) is in the formal, present tense. I’ll write another post on the past tense as well.

One last note, the particle は in わたしは　にほんじんでわありません and other sentences, is pronounced as wa, not ha. は is also a subject marking particle. However, since subjects can be dropped, this particle can also be dropped.