Negative Te-Form
“If a man does his best, what else is there?” – General George S. Patton
So far we’ve only looked at regular te-form. There’s also a negative te-form too, and although it’s useful for fewer things, it’s quite still useful. In general, it’s used more for various grammar add-ons, rather than extending sentences (and we’ll get to the te-form add-ons here in a couple pages).
Negative te-form is just as easy as regular te-form, as long as (once again) you know your dictionary forms. Negative te-form is based off of negative dictionary form, so let’s take a look at that first.
たべる → たべない
のむ → のまない
行く → 行かない
あそぶ → あそばない
So on and so forth. Negative te-form simply has you add a で to the end of the negative dictionary form.
たべない → aたべないで
のまない → aのまないで
行かない → a行かないで
あそばない → aあそばないで
See how that works? Now I want you to try. Can you turn these into negative te-form verbs?
入る
a入らないで
たおす
aたおさないで
なおす
aなおさないで
はしる
aはしらないで
ならう
aならわないで
しぬ
aしなないで
かく
aかかないで
Really, it comes down to knowing your dictionary form (and its tenses). If you know those from before, then this should be a breeze. If you don’t, be sure to review a bit to catch up!