Different ways to say to like?


On one self-teaching site, I learned to say "to not like" in a format like
this: いぬはすきじゃりません。But in a self-teaching _book_ it said to format it like
this: いぬはすきではありません。I know there are many different ways to say everything in
Japanese, but I just want to make sure that both of these are correct! What's
the difference between the two? Is one more formal than the other? Are there
certain situations in which one is more appropriate than the other?




> 犬{いぬ}は好{す}きじゃない。

is a casual colloquial expression.

> 犬{いぬ}は好{す}きじゃありません。

is also a casual colloquial expression, even a little bit polite.

You can say and write the expression with "じゃ" in your e-mail to your friends
and family members.

> 犬{いぬ}は好{す}きではありません。

is a polite expression.

Anyway conversation topics of "likes-dislikes" are personal affirs, so you
have many occasions to say "ｘｘｘは好きじゃない（=好きじゃありません）" with your friends.

> example: "納豆は食べられるけど、好きじゃないね"




じゃ is simply a contraction of では, so these sentences are equivalent and
correct. じゃ is slightly more familiar/informal than では, but not necessarily
rude or anything. You could probably functionally compare it to `can't` vs.
`cannot`.

