Meaning of のです/んです

行くんじゃない? sounds like “you’ll go, won’t you?”
行かないんだ is obviously a statement since it ends in だ
行かないの? sounds like something you’d say in response to someone saying they won’t go.

That’s my take anyway.

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Sure, but that’s just the question particle の, not the nominalizer の in the other ones.

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Even if it’s turning the verb into a noun before adding だ, じゃない, etc., it has a different nuance than just a normal nominalizer. Every time you nominalize a verb, it doesn’t have the same questioning/explanation nuance, so I look at them as different things.

Besides, doesn’t ending your questions with の have the same “seeking an explanation” nuance as ん・の in the other examples?

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But the “explanation” の isn’t always for questions. And you can’t just slap explanatory の at the end of a statement without だ or です.

I see the explanatory nuance as emerging from using the nominalizer the way it’s used, but maybe that’s just me.

They have overlapping qualities, but I count them as unique instances with their own things to have to learn.

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Hmm, okay. Now I’m also wondering if there’s any overlap with the (mostly feminine) sentence ending の with the falling intonation.

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Oh, and there are strict grammarians who will say that ですので is ungrammatical because of the fact that the explanatory の is supposed to be functioning as a nominalizer, and you can’t nominalize です.

But that seems like a grammatical battle that has been lost, and it’s not something the average person feels to be ungrammatical.

Thanks guys, it’s somewhat clarifying, though I still feel that part of the discussion is flying over my head lol! I’m still at the point where Japanese grammar sounds like technical instructions to astrophysics I’m afraid… Also I’m not super good with concepts in language, so how on earth did I decide to study japanese lol! But it’s much clearer now, thanks :slight_smile:

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