Day 32 Lesson 1 - Grammar Explanation

The conjugation of ない form

1) Group 1

The preceding vowel of 「ない」 goes to [a] instead of [i].

In cases of 「います」, 「わない」 instead of 「あない」 is used. As explained before, this type of verbs has [w]. However, due to the phonetic restriction of the modern Japanese, [w] only appears before [a].

There is only one exception in the group 1 「ない」 forms. That is for the verb 「あります」and 「ない」. 「ない」becomes the form of this verb. This is because「ない」is an い adjective of inexistence. You will find more information on 「ない」 in Day 34 lesson.

2) Group 2 

As often is the case for verbs of the 2nd group, the only substitution necessary to conjugate「ない」 form is that you swap「ます」for 「な い」  instead.

3)  Group 3

The same principle as group 2 is applicable to 「します」 of the 3rd group: します/しない, while「きま す」 has an exceptional conjugation and becomes 「こない」.