How to allow and disallow in Japanese

Below, learn the how to allow and disallow in japanese!

Generally speaking, both the Japanese phrases for asking permission and the Japanese phrases for prohibiting some action use a mixture of the japanese verbs in te form and some very common expressions in the Japanese language.

How to allow and disallow in Japanese

In today's article, we're going to talk a little about the most basic ways of building sentences used to give permission and forbid someone to do something in Japanese.

How to allow and ask for permission in Japanese

To give or ask for permission in Japanese, it is necessary to follow a basic sentence structure, using the japanese verbs in te form, the particle も and one of the expressions below:

宜しいです。
いいです。
かまいません。

The forms presented above are mostly used in formal conversations. In the case of informality, it is possible to use かまわない, もいい or いい without the need to use ですat the end of sentences. The examples below better illustrate the cases of formality and informality for asking permission in Japanese.

Formal

宜しいです。  – テレビを見ても宜しいですか？
いいです。  – テレビを見てもいいですか？
かまいません。- テレビを見てもかまいませんか？

Informal
かまわない – テレビを見てもかわない
いい         – テレビを見てもいい

Colloquial
いい – テレビを見ていい

Note that to turn the sentence into a question, just add the particle か at the end of the sentence in Japanese, using the same path that we studied in the article “how to ask questions in japanese“.

Below are some more examples on how to give and ask for permission in Japanese.

ここに座ってもいいですか？
この寿司を食べても宜しいですか？
日本語の辞書を使ってもいい。

How to ban in Japanese

Forbidding some action in Japanese is something as simple as giving permission, where we use a similar way to build sentences. But in this case, it is more common to use the particle は.

So, to prohibit something in Japanese, we will need the verbs in the form te, adding the particle は and one of the expressions listed below.

Formal
なりません – テレビを見てはなりません。
いけません – テレビを見てはいけません。

Informal
ならない – テレビを見てはならない。
いけない – テレビを見てはいけない。
だめだ – テレビを見てはだめだ。

Colloquial
ちゃだめ – テレビを見ちゃだめ。

Below are some examples on how to ban in Japanese:

日本語の本を使ってはだめだ。
寿司を食べてはなりません。

Today, I thought it best to talk about this subject in a somewhat superficial way, but in the next articles, we will talk about this topic in a deeper way.

Kanji calligraphy exercise

Below are the Japanese ideographic symbols used in this article. Selecting the desired kanji, copy and paste them into Worksheet for Kana and Kanji Practice , a new window will open where you can view the printable file and practice Japanese calligraphy by covering the gray symbols and then trying to write yourself. Just print and practice.