N5 grammar

〜なかった

nakatta

Plain past negative

Formation

なかった says casually that something did not happen. It is ない conjugated like an adjective, which is what ない is. Once that clicks, this form stops needing to be memorised separately.

Examples

〜なかった is marked in each sentence. Tap any word for its dictionary entry.

  1. The car wouldn't start.

  2. I was hardly prepared.

  3. For some reason the microphone didn't work earlier.

  4. The pump didn't work properly.

  5. I met nobody on my way home.

The explanation is ours, written for this site. Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), each machine-checked to actually contain the pattern. Furigana is generated automatically, so a rare reading may be imperfect.