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I've recently started learning Japanese through self teaching (a few different
mobile apps and books, this question is spawned from using one called Memrise)

But I'm learning to say "I don't like " which is pretty straight forward, but
I'm confused on the particle used (if it is a particle, I still haven't fully
grasped them yet).

I'll use "I don't Like Apples" as an example, part of confusion bolded:

> わたしはりんごがすき **では** ありません
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question
particles copula
What does では mean in this sentence?
ではありません is the more polite form of じゃありません, but the most common form used is
じゃない。

So ではありません is basically negating 好き to mean "Don't like".

You could use that sentence as:

> わたしはりんごがすきではありません。formal.
>
> わたしはりんごがすきじゃありません。 still formal but not as much as the first.
>
> わたしはりんごがすきじゃない。 more casual.
>
> わたし ＞ 私
>
> すき ＞ 好き
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Practically you may just memorize ではない as a negative form of だ, and ではありません as
a negative form of です, as shown in [this
chart](http://www.japaneseprofessor.com/reference/grammar/conjugations-of-the-
japanese-copula/). To break down, this では is made of two components, one being
a particle and the other being an (auxiliary) verb.

  * **で** is the te-form (aka continuative form) of the copula (aka linking verb) だ. だ conjugates similarly to na-adjectives.
  * **は** is the topic marker は, which is optional but usually placed here. See: [Why is the topic marker often used in negative statements (ではない, ～とは思わない)?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1077/5010)

So you know how to say "I like apples".

> わたしはりんごがすきだ。 (plain form)

You can construct its negative version in several ways:

>   * わたしはりんごがすきではない。 (sounds "plain"; see the link above)
>   * わたしはりんごがすきでない。 (は may be dropped, especially when this appears as a
> clause of a long sentence)
>   * わたしはりんごがすきではありません。 (polite form)
>   * わたしはりんごがすきじゃない。 (では becomes じゃ in casual speech)
>
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