質問: I tried to say "I'm not a high school student". But I read you can use じゃない to 'deny' something. In this case which one should I use? ではありません or じゃない? 私{わたし}はこうこうの学生{がくせい}ではありません。or 私{わたし}はこうこうの学生{がくせい}じゃないです。?
回答: First of all, you would use で**は**, not で**わ**. It's the particle `は`, the same one as `私は` at the beginning of your sentence. Second, you have many options here. `じゃ` is just a contraction of `では`, and `ない` is just the informal form of `ありません`. So you have four choices that are all correct. > > * じゃない → most informal > * ではない > * じゃありません > * ではありません → most formal > > > So it really depends on the context, who you're speaking to, and how formal you want to be. Whether or not you want to say `では・じゃないです` instead of just `では・じゃない` is another issue, but you may want to look at this topic regarding that.