"Nakute" ... what does it mean?

[hayashi]

Here is the sentence:

Okane ga nakute, kowatte imasu.

I know it means I don't have any money so I'm in trouble (or roughly the equivalent) but what I don't understand is "nakute." Is this a form of a verb and if so, which one?

Thanks.

 

[PaulTB]

Here is the sentence:

Okane ga nakute, kowatte imasu.

I know it means I don't have any money so I'm in trouble

It doesn't.

I don't understand is "nakute." Is this a form of a verb and if so, which one?

It's the -kute form of nai.

Back to the sentence, it's 'komatteimasu'.

 

[okaeri_man]

or putting it another way, it's simply the -te form of nai. but since it ends in i, like i-adjectives, it goes to -kute. other examples are omoshirokute, yasashikute, warukute.

so it's essentially joining the 2 bits of the sentence together in your case. "okane ga nai. komatteimasu." it makes sense, but just whack nai into -te form and we get one flowing sentence instead of 2 short separate sentences.

 

[PaulTB]

Incidentally one common other usage of 'nakute' is as follows,

時間じゃなくて金です。 jikan ja nakute kane desu.
It's not the time, it's the money.

 

[hayashi]

Thanks for the replies. I've only been studying Japanese for about a year and had never seen the "te" form expressed as "nakute." I get it now!

 

[GaijinPunch]

Two more yen here:

A useful way to sue this is when replying to someone, but perhaps jumping in mid-sentence. The timing can be tricky I suppose.

Aさん：でんわしたのはかれ。。。
Bさん：じゃなくて私でした。