Practicing じゃありませんでした
“You can be pleased with nothing if you are not pleased with yourself.” – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
So you know that じゃありませんでした is just a product of じゃありません and でした. Let’s put it to use. First, some examples.
If anything’s been missing from TextFugu, it’s the inclusion of Super Heroes in example sentences (plus, it’ll help you to focus on the grammar, because you already know the superheroes by heart, I imagine).
Iron Man じゃありませんでした → It was not Iron Man.
Batman じゃありませんでした → It was not Batman.
Superman じゃありませんでしたか？ → Was it not Superman?
Superman じゃありませんでした → It was not Superman.
Do you see how this works, and see how it relates to です, でした, and じゃありません? One thing that might be a little tricky, though, is the pronunciation. In theory you should know it if you know じゃありません and でした’s pronunciation, but it’s still worth a check, right?
Now that you know the pronunciation and the pattern, let’s answer some questions. All the vocab comes from the last 20 noun vocab you’ve already learned. All the grammar comes from all the grammar lessons you’ve done up until now! :)
こうえん ですか？
Is it a park?
いいえ、こうえん じゃありません。
No, it is not a park
しお でしたか？
Was it salt?
いいえ、しおじゃありませんでした。さとうでした。
No, it was not salt. It was sugar.
しゃしん じゃありませんか？
Is it not a picture?
しゃしん じゃありません。
It is not a picture
Now see if you can turn these English sentences into Japanese! If you need writing practice (and you do), write the answers out on a piece of paper. Superhero names can be written in English, since we haven’t learned katakana yet.
Was it a desk?
つくえ でしたか？
Was it Superman?
Supermanでしたか？
No, it was Aquaman.
いいえ, Aquamanでした。
It was not Iron Man
Iron Man じゃありませんでした。
It was not Superman. It was Aquaman.
Supermanじゃありませんでした。Aquamanでした。
It is a box. It is a subway. It is Superman!
はこです。ちかてつです。Supermanです！
Well done – when you’ve completed these questions, move on to the next page for a bit of a recap and a worksheet.