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What is the polite equivalent of つかわないで ください ?

(tsukawanaide kudasai)

Can we write つかいませんで ください ?

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  • @chocolate So can we use it when talking to teachers?
    – vickyace
    May 28, 2016 at 9:28
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    つかわないでください is already the polite form. Its casual/plain equivalent would be つかうな, つかわないで, or つかわないでくれ. Maybe you're looking for its honorific/尊敬語 form?
    – chocolate
    May 28, 2016 at 9:28
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    Oops sorry I edited and reposted my comment. Yes you could use it to teachers but if you want to sound politer you could use 尊敬語 (honorific language), like おつかいにならないでください
    – chocolate
    May 28, 2016 at 9:32
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    Related: japanese.stackexchange.com/q/33996/7810 May 29, 2016 at 10:19

1 Answer 1

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What is the polite equivalent of つかわないでください ?

It would depend on how polite you want to make it sound as there are different levels of politeness in Japanese as in any other languages.

「[使]{つか}わないでください。」 is already "casually polite" as stated in the coment above. That is because 「ください」 is attached, which is sort of like using "please" in English.

The verb 「使う」, however, is just "plain" and contains no nuance of politeness within itself, which is why 「使わないでください。」 can only sound casually polite.

In order to take the politeness one step further, you could use the honorific verb phrase「お[使]{つか}いになる」 instead of the plain 「使う」 and form the sentence:

お使いにならないでください。」

In informal situations, that would be pretty polite. In order to make it more formal, you could use the Sino-loanword 「[使用]{しよう}」 and say:

ご使用にならないでください。」 (Notice the お-to-ご honorific change.)

Advanced learners would know that even that sentence would lack the elegance on the native-level formal and honorific speech. I know this would be too much for beginners to remember, but that super-polite sentence would look something like:

「ご[使用]{しよう}にならないようお[願]{ねが}い[申]{もう}し[上]{あ}げます。」

Can we write つかいませんでください ?

No, we cannot. The ます-form of a verb cannot be placed in front of ください.

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