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A student asks "じしょ を つかって も いい です か？"

Teacher replies" いいえ だめ です"

I want to know, if possible, how could he have used だめ です to say the full
sentence of "no, you cannot use the dictionary" or is だめ です equivalent to
english "no you can't"?
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2016-05-30T14:18:19.573
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2016-06-10T06:16:58.280
2016-06-09T20:10:53.473
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word-usage
Question about using だめ です
The full sentence would be いいえ、辞書{じしょ}を使{つか}っては駄目{だめ}です, literally translating
'No, you cannot use the dictionary. You could also say いけません or なりません in place
of 駄目{だめ}; all three can also be used in plain form, as 駄目{だめ}だ, いけない, and
ならない.
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2016-05-30T17:45:40.717
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2016-05-30T17:56:35.990
2016-05-30T17:56:35.990
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English translation is not the literal meaning. だめ is not _can't_. It means
'no good'. So the teacher is basically saying **"No, (using a dictionary is)
no good."**  
  
It's weird to say that kind of sentence in English so we use the context and
create a more natural translation, which is **'No you can't (use a
dictionary)."**
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2016-05-31T18:37:49.727
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2016-06-01T06:04:08.870
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From i own experience in Japanese it is possible omit large parts of the
sentence and still have a valid expression. In this way you can you say "いいえ、
**ダメ** です" ( _note_ : usually written in Katakana i think) in the context of
you question would mean "No, you cannot use the dictionary"

Generally speaking, the longer the expression the more polity it is
considered. So, a more polite way would be "辞書出来ません **ですけれども** 。" Note that in
this sentence _ですけれども_ does not really have a meaning, but is used to make the
expression more soft (often translated as "but").

Same is also true for English i think. "Can i use the dictionary?" Can be
answered in multiple levels of politeness:

"No", "No, you cannot", "No you cannot use the dictionary", ....,
"Unfortunately i am very sorry but it is not possible to use the dictionary"

The last option is something that would be used in a professional context i
guess.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-10T06:16:58.280
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