な (Masculine Negative Imperative) Japanese Grammar Lesson

な (Masculine Negative Imperative) Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Particle

Essential Meaning: Don’t do X (strong negative imperative)

Construction:

Verb informal non-past + な
- E.g. 話はなすな [Don’t speak]
- E.g. 食たべるな [Don’t eat]

Notes:

な is a very strong, masculine, and informal negative imperative marker. When appended to the end of an informal non-past sentence, な means “Don’t do X!“. For example, the famous Bruce Lee quote “Don’t Think. Feel” is translated as: 「考かんがえるな。感かんじろ。」

Females tend to use ないで (i.e. negative て-Form) to convey informal imperatives.
- E.g. 食たべないで！[Don’t eat!]

Example Sentences:

タバコを吸すうな！[Don’t smoke tobacco!]

酒さけをあまり飲のむな！[Don’t drink too much!]

そんなところにもう行いくな！[Don’t go to that sort of place any more!]

あんな男おとことは結婚けっこんするな！[Don’t marry that kind of guy!]

もう帰かえってくるな！[Don’t come home any more!]

WILD Examples:

Listen to this line at 0:23: 感かんじるな、考かんがえろ [Don’t feel, Think!] This is an inversion of the Bruce Lee quote mentioned above.

Listen to this line at 2:23: 男共おとこどもを甘あまく見みるな [Don’t take the men lightly]

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