〜っこない kkonai

〜っこない（kkonai）means “there's no way ...; couldn't possibly ...”. Attaches to the verb stem to strongly deny a possibility — 'there's absolutely no way that . Formation: V-ます（去ます）＋っこない。「見る・いる・寝る」等ます前一文字的动词不可用

there's no way ...; couldn't possibly ...

N2

Formation

V-ます（去ます）＋っこない。「見る・いる・寝る」等ます前一文字的动词不可用

Explanation

Attaches to the verb stem to strongly deny a possibility — 'there's absolutely no way that ... will happen / could be done.' It's an emphatic, casual equivalent of 〜わけがない or 〜はずがない. Very common in speech: wakarikkonai (no way you'd understand), dekikkonai (couldn't possibly do it).

Examples

そんな難しい問題、私にわかりっこないよ。
そんなむずかしいもんだい、わたしにわかりっこないよ。
There's no way I could understand such a hard problem.
一日でこんなにたくさん、やりっこない。
いちにちでこんなにたくさん、やりっこない。
There's no way to get this much done in a single day.

Note

Casual/spoken. Cannot attach to verbs whose stem is a single mora (見る→×見っこない, いる, 寝る); use 〜わけがない instead.

FAQ

〜っこない — what does it mean and how is it used?

there's no way ...; couldn't possibly .... Attaches to the verb stem to strongly deny a possibility — 'there's absolutely no way that ... will happen / could be done.' It's an emphatic, casual equivalent of 〜わけがない or 〜はずがない. Very common in speech: wakarikkonai (no way you'd understand), dekikkonai (couldn't possibly do it).

〜っこない — how do you form it?

V-ます（去ます）＋っこない。「見る・いる・寝る」等ます前一文字的动词不可用

〜っこない — any usage notes?

Casual/spoken. Cannot attach to verbs whose stem is a single mora (見る→×見っこない, いる, 寝る); use 〜わけがない instead.

Related grammar

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