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Should not do with 〜てはいけない

Saying one should not perform an action is conveyed by a verb in its て form, the particle は, and the verb いけない (“wrong”, “not good”, “must not do”). Although this does not strictly prohibit an action, it gives a sense of it being wrong to do the action.

See also

Examples

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Further Reading

  • Chino, Naoko. "Commands and Prohibitions." Japanese Verbs at a Glance, Kodansha, 2000, pp. 35–36
  • Chino, Naoko. "Basic Pattern 27." A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns, Kodansha, 2000, p. 192
  • Kamiya, Takeo. "Usage of Verb Forms." The Handbook of Japanese Verbs, Kodansha, 2001, p. 160
  • Kamiya, Taeko. "Commands, Requests, Suggestions, Approval, Disapproval, Prohibition, and Obligation." Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication, Kodansha, 2005, p. 175
  • Makino, Seiichi and Michio Tsutsui. "Main Entries." A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, The Japan Times Ltd., 1989, p. 528