Using the form ~てしまう we mean, that something happened in a way we did not expect. But what if we use a negative form before the ~てしまう ending? Will it be also grammatically right?
For example:
昨日メッセージを書いていなくてしまいました。
Using the form ~てしまう we mean, that something happened in a way we did not expect. But what if we use a negative form before the ~てしまう ending? Will it be also grammatically right?
For example:
昨日メッセージを書いていなくてしまいました。
なくて doesn't connect to しまう but ないで does, in other words, you can say 昨日、メッセージを書かないでしまった.
(Technically, 書いていないでしまった is possible but that sounds very awkward. On the other hand, 書かないでいてしまった is fine though I still can't see the point to use it here.)
what if we use a negative form before the ~てしまう ending?
How about using ~ずにいてしまう (negative ず + particle に + verb い(る) + particle て + しまう), as in:
昨日、メッセージを書かずにいてしまいました。
You cannot say:
*「[昨日]{きのう}メッセージを[書]{か}いていなくてしまいました。」
as it is ungrammatical and it does not mean anything.
You can, however, say:
「昨日メッセージを書かなくなってしまいました。」,
which is at least grammatical, if not very natural content-wise. It would mean:
"I stopped writing messages yesterday."
The reason that it does not sound natural in Japanese is that "昨日" is too close to the present to say that one has terminated an activity for good.
It would sound perfectly natural if you replaced 「昨日」 with 「[一か月]{いっかげつ}くらい[前]{まえ}から」 or 「[2-3週間前]{にさんしゅうかんまえ}から」.
Yes, that's right.
Written language(rare)
"~(できなくorしてなく)て" + "しまいました"
e.g.「昨日メッセージを書いていなくてしまいました。」
Spoken language(general)
"しまった" + "~(できなかったorしてなかった)"
e.g.「しまった。昨日メッセージを書いていなかった。」
Note:
"しまいました" = "しまいます" + "~た"(past tense)
"しまいます" = "しまう" + "~ます"(Polite language)
Nuance:
「昨日メッセージを [書いていなくて]{reason} [しまいました。]{negative result}」
I don't think 書かないでしまった is possible. It sounds highly unnatural. At least, I have never heard of such wordings.
However you can show the negative sense using additional words, like:
昨日はメッセージを書きそびれてしまった。
Or: 昨日はメッセージを書かずに過ごしてしまった。
Here, ~そびれる is a sort of auxiliary verb to mean "to fail to ~", while 書かずに過ごす is a simple set of words; "to pass (time) without writing". 書かないで過ごす is also possible.
[EDIT] I made some google search and found that actually a certain amount of people including novelists DO use ないでしまった. So this seems to be about the "difference among individual speakers". While I would still retain my opinion, you could use ないでしまった probably with no problem...