En réponse à Garth Wallace :
>Look to the "-nai" instead. That's the negative nonpast plain form verb
>ending. "Kirenai" seems like it should be the negative plain form of the
>verb "kireru", which my dictionary defines as "to cut well, be
>disconnected, run out of, expire". It may be an idiomatic thing, I'm not
>sure.
It is. With the -masu form of a verb, it can be used to mean "cannot ...
everything" where you replace "..." with the verb in -masu form. Cf. my
post to Mark.
> For "cannot", my dictionary gives "dekinai", which is the negative
>or "dekiru", "to be able to".
Correct.
>Probably not...the "-masu" ending is the polite form, and that's never
>used when the verb is subordinate (at least, IME. I could be wrong).
You're right. Politeness suffixes can only appear on the main verb of the
sentence, i.e. the very last one.
>"Dekiru", when used to describe abilities, requires the action as a
>noun, so you need to nominalize the verb using one of the nominalizing
>particles (either "no" or "koto"). I think your sentence would be
>something like "Makeru no ga toutei dekimasen."
Correct as far as I can see.
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.