Tue, 01/19/2010 - 01:07
Hopefully I am posting this in the right place. I just had a quick question about the homework on page 60 in the workbook. I figured I'd post it here instead of just emailing it to Tony Sensei.
I didn't have any problems until I got to number 5, which says, "Michiko is not tall."
I am confused because in the vocabulary section for this chapter there is the word なにも + negative, which means not . . . anything.
Would the sentence just be - みちこさんはせはたかくありません。
Sorry if this is a simple question, but I tend to over analyze this stuff with all of the new grammar rules.
ありがとうございます！
ジョンさん、おはようございます。
ごめんなさい！ There's actually a grammar note that we haven't looked at yet that addresses this peripherally, but I think that what you are asking is a little bit different from what the grammar note emphasizes.
Your translation is basically right. The only thing I would change is to use the が particle instead of は in 「背（せ）が高い」：
みちこさんは、背が高くありません。
Using は works grammatically, but changes the emphasis in a way that would rarely be used. 今日のクラスで、そのはなしをもっとしましょう！