# 重傷



## Myuu

Also, this is not related to tenses but... 
How come you can't say 重傷がない? It has to be 重傷じゃない. But I want to say, "I have no serious wounds," not "It is not a serious wound." How come the former is not possible to say with this word?


----------



## L.chan

hello,


As for 重傷じゃない, I would say it is better taken as a collocation, or a way of saying. Although it seems correct to say 傷がない。

I hope it helps.


----------



## Flaminius

Hello *Myuu* and *L.chan*,

Welcome to the fora!  Hope you will have a lot of learning and fun experiences.  

Now, 重傷 is primarily used in an adjective 重傷だ (seriously injured) and its conjugations.  Probably it is a set phrase as *L.chan* says.


----------



## Myuu

Ah, I see, thank you!
The online dictionary I use says that 重傷 is a noun. So there are some nouns that act like adjectives? Would it be correct to memorize this word as a na-adjective instead, then? Would it be correct to say 重傷な人, to mean "seriously injured man"? Or is this a phrase limited to 重傷じゃない? Gah, sorry, question after question. ^_^;


----------



## Flaminius

Wait a second.  重傷がない is possible.    I am sorry.  The adjective 重傷だ does not follow the regular conjugation paradigm in that 重傷な is less used than 重傷の (according to Google but this is also my impression).

A seriously injured person (not necessarily a man) is 重傷の人.


----------



## lammn

Flaminius said:


> The adjective 重傷だ does not follow the regular conjugation paradigm in that 重傷な is less used than 重傷の (according to Google but this is also my impression).


 
Could it be that 重傷の is more frequently used than 重傷な because the word 重傷 is, _grammatically speaking_, a noun rather than an adjective? 



Myuu said:


> Would it be correct to say 重傷な人, to mean "seriously injured man"?


 
重傷者（じゅうしょうしゃ） is another alternative.


----------



## Myuu

Oh, so you CAN say 重傷がない? When I used it to say that I was practicing how to ride a bicycle the other day, I mentioned how I fell a lot. I then added that it was alright because I had no serious injuries: 重傷がないから大丈夫, and this was apparently wrong and was corrected to say 重傷じゃないから大丈夫 instead. Googling 重傷がない gives results, which suggests that it is indeed correct but then I don't understand why in my case it was wrong...

Thank you for your responses everyone.


----------



## ty604

This is similar to another common mistake many gaijin make.

We sometimes say 好きくない because we are taught that i-adjectives use kunai for negative, but it's 好きじゃない.

I don't say it anymore but I said it many times this past year/my first year 

I think because we also get mixed up with 欲しくない。


----------



## Flaminius

ミュー,

It's not about the form itself but its usage in a given context.  In the context you provided #7 _supra_, good Japanese usage dictates that the topic of the sentence should be your injuries.  You have already mentioned that you get wounds from riding a bicycle.  Don't worry —you continue— they (= wounds) are not serious ones.  重傷がない makes you, the speaker, the topic and this would make the transition of sentences unnatural.


----------



## ty604

But sometimes people over analyze the grammar / linguistics. You'll go bananas. Keep it simple.

nai=arimasen=do not have/isn't there.
janai=not/is not

kuruma ga nai/arimasen - don't have a car
kuruma janai - is not a car

what you need is a sample sentence using very common usage.

"Have / do not have an important question". 大切な[taisetsu-na]質問[shitsumon]がある／ない。Because I used がある／ない I am saying that *someone* has/does not have an important question. *Someone* is the subject.

If I change it to "the question is important / is not important" it becomes 大切な質問です or 大切な質問じゃない。 In this case "質問" [*shitsumon*] is the subject.


----------



## Myuu

Oh I see, I get it now! I totally forgot about the switch in subjects. 
Thanks so much for explaining this to me guys!


----------

