Negative Polite Style
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He does not eat it. [Polite Style]
She does not see them. [Polite Style]
They do not speak it. [Polite Style]
They do not read them. [Polite Style]
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The verb base for ‘eat’ is たべ /tabe/.
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The verb base for ‘see’ is み /mi/.
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The verb base for ‘speak’ is はなｓ /hanas/.
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The verb base for ‘read’ is よｍ /yom/.
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As learned before, the present negative in the
classical Japanese is /en/, and modern Japanese uses the form that takes
only the polite style /(i)mas/ as its complement.
Key 1: It follows that the present
negative in the polite style is:
iません /imas-en/ if the verb
base ends with a consonant, and
ません /mas-en/ if the verb
base ends with a vowel.
The verb in the present tense means a habitual action or a definite future
action described by the verb, and tense takes a verb base immediately before
it, as usual.
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たべ ません --> たべません
/tabe/ /mas-en/ --> /tabemasen/
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み ません --> みません
/mi/ /mas-en/ --> /mimasen/
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はなｓ iません --> はなしません
/hanas/ /imas-en/ --> /hanasimasen/
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よｍ iません --> よみません
/yom/ /imas-en/ --> /yomimasen/