I am wondering when it is proper and improper to end a sentence with じゃない in informal context


So if you're saying "No, I dont live in Osaka" would you then be able to say
いいえ大阪に住んでじゃない or do you have to say 大阪に住んでいません? Also if you can't just use it
whenever, why not? Is じゃない reserved for talking about a verb, noun, etc. or is
it just something that turns almost anything into a negative?




じゃない is only for nouns and na-adjectives. (Na-adjectives are technically
[descriptive _nouns_](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1016/5010), so you
can say じゃない is only for nouns and noun-likes).

  * ✅私は学生じゃない。  
I'm not a student.

  * ✅この問題は簡単じゃない。  
This question isn't easy.

じゃない is an informal short version of ではない, which is a plain version of
ではありません. All these three are for nouns and na-adjectives.

You cannot use じゃない to negate a verb or an i-adjective. A plain (non-polite)
version of 大阪に住んでいません is 大阪に住んでいない, or more colloquially, 大阪に住んでない (でいる can
contract to でる).

(If you are already familiar with
[explanatory-の](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/5398/5010), you can use
じゃない in conjunction with it to effectively negate a verb: 大阪に住んでいる **ん** じゃない.
But this ん changes the nuance of the sentence quite a bit, so make sure you
understand what you are doing before using this pattern.)




じゃない is only for nouns and na-adjectives. (Na-adjectives are technically
[descriptive _nouns_](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1016/5010), so you
can say じゃない is only for nouns and noun-likes).

  * ✅私は学生じゃない。  
I'm not a student.

  * ✅この問題は簡単じゃない。  
This question isn't easy.

じゃない is an informal short version of ではない, which is a plain version of
ではありません. All these three are for nouns and na-adjectives.

You cannot use じゃない to negate a verb or an i-adjective. A plain (non-polite)
version of 大阪に住んでいません is 大阪に住んでいない, or more colloquially, 大阪に住んでない (でいる can
contract to でる).

(If you are already familiar with
[explanatory-の](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/5398/5010), you can use
じゃない in conjunction with it to effectively negate a verb: 大阪に住んでいる **ん** じゃない.
But this ん changes the nuance of the sentence quite a bit, so make sure you
understand what you are doing before using this pattern.)

