ちがう (chigau) Meaning Japanese Grammar - No

The verb ちがう (chigau) is in the dictionary form and means be different, be wrong, be incorrect, vary.

We'll see in this post various examples of ちがう in its original meaning and also in everyday conversation, particularly telephone conversation where it takes on the meaning of No, it's wrong.

ちがう in negative answers

The Kanji of this verb is 違(ちが)う and its polite form 違(ちが)います. It is used in the affirmative form, but with a negative meaning.

In everyday informal and confidential conversation it is often heard 違(ちが)う to express a negation and is often combined with いいえ No. The meaning of ちがう using another form is そうではない.

On the phone:

ちがう: it is wrong

The verb ちがう has affirmative form, but the nuance of meaning is negative.

We can translate the verb as being different, being dissimilar, being wrong, being false and in the latter cases it is synonymous with 間(ま)違(ちが)っている。

Degrees of diversity

ちがう as a verb and can be preceded by an adverb, we see 3 cases expressing a different degrees of diversity.

• 全(ぜん)然(ぜん)違(ちが)う completely / totally different,
• とても違(ちが)う very / quite different,
• 少(すこ)し違(ちが)う slightly different.

The verb ちがう is preceded by the particle と: differ from.

によって違(ちが)う: depending on

A common usage of the verb 違(ちが)う follows the structure:

and its translation is:

• A changes depending on B;
• the variation of A depends on the variation of B,
• A depends on B.

Titles of articles published on the Internet:

In this last title we find an interesting structure: verbal base + 方 kata: how to do something, the way of doing something. ...

Examples of ちがう

Here is the title of a recent Japanese film in its literal translation.

Example with the synonym 間(ま)違(ちが)う in the form ている, past tense ていた.