uses of arimasen??

[Variand]

Ok, so i'm trying ot learn japanese out of a book i bought... and it says the negative of 'desu' is either "de wa arimasen" or "ja arimasen". but what it doesn't say is when to use either one or the other.

for the most part it has only used ja arimasen in the examples, but the whole de wa arimasen is throwing me off. can anyone show me the light?

[maikeru]

Variand wrote:
Ok, so i'm trying ot learn japanese out of a book i bought... and it says the negative of 'desu' is either "de wa arimasen" or "ja arimasen". but what it doesn't say is when to use either one or the other.

for the most part it has only used ja arimasen in the examples, but the whole de wa arimasen is throwing me off. can anyone show me the light?

ja is simply a contraction of dewa. dewa is slightly more polite but ja arimasen is still very polite. They mean exactly the same.

[maikeru]

Variand wrote:
Ok, so i'm trying ot learn japanese out of a book i bought... and it says the negative of 'desu' is either "de wa arimasen" or "ja arimasen". but what it doesn't say is when to use either one or the other.

for the most part it has only used ja arimasen in the examples, but the whole de wa arimasen is throwing me off. can anyone show me the light?

ja is simply a contraction of dewa. dewa is slightly more polite but ja arimasen is still very polite. They mean exactly the same.

[Variand]

ah ok, arigato. clears things up a bit.