This is a tricky phrase. Depending on your intonation, it could go either way.

じゃない is often used at the end of a sentence to add a nuance of "I told you so" or "You should know this already".

Maybe switching in the reduced form will make it easier to understand: あなたは関係ないじゃん。

However, if you said it totally straight faced and seriously, then yes じゃない would negate 関係ない and become a true double-negative.

Edit: I take this back, you'd have to go farther than straight-faced and serious. You'd need to actually emphasize じゃない to make it a double negative.

But IMO, to make it a true double-negative it would be better to say あなたは関係ないなんかじゃない

Last edited by lloydvincent (2012 November 04, 11:01 pm)

HououinKyouma wrote:

While reading, I have come across this specific grammar point quite often.
あなたは関係ないじゃない。
The context leads me to believe that the sentence means '(this) has nothing to do with you.' The character that said this clearly wanted the other party to leave her alone, indicating that the incident didn't involve the other person (or so I think.) However, wouldn't this sentence directly translate to 'it is not that it has nothing to do with you.' Awkward, I know, but doesn't じゃない negate the 関係ない part of the sentence. I'm a little confused...

Don't forget that grammatically, the negative of ない is not ないじゃない, it's なくない.  So this cannot be a true negative; it can only be a question (rhetorical or real depending on the intonation and context).  This is not limited to negatives; 高いじゃない？ is perfectly fine too.

Now, when you have something that *can* grammatically be negative (like ないんじゃない, 高くない？ 先生じゃない？ or the like), then it's purely down to intonation and context.

あなたは関係ないなんかじゃない

I believe that this does indeed mean a double negative "You aren't not connected" but whether this would actually be used by a native speaker I don't know.

Last edited by yudantaiteki (2012 November 05, 12:17 am)