adverbial N2 uncommon casualpolitewritten
みんな〜ない — not everyone/everything ~
みんな〜ない ・ みんなはない
Meaning
- not everyone / not everybody / not all of them ~ — partial negation via は: some do, some don't
Key sentence
クラスのみんなはまだ来ていない。
Not everyone in the class has arrived yet.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| みんな + は + negative predicate | みんな + は + … + ない | みんなは賛成していない |
When you can't use it
- Keep the は. みんな来ない (no は) can read as 'no one is coming' (all-negative); みんなは来ない marks it as partial — 'not everyone (is coming).' The は is doing the 'not all' work.
Easily confused with
See みんな〜ない in real sentences
Jengo shows みんな〜ない the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar. Editorial confidence: medium.