っこない details
write + no way
kaki kkonai
no way; there's absolutely no chance of
meaning: have no chance of writing
そんな複雑な話、子どもには分かりっこないよ。
sonna fukuzatsu na hanashi, kodomo ni wa wakari kkonai yo.
A kid has no chance of understanding a story that complicated. casual
一晩でこんな量、終わらせっこないよ。
hitoban de konna ryou, owarase kkonai yo.
Doing this much in one night — we have no chance of finishing. casual
- formal
- past
- polite
Examples
no way; there's absolutely no chance of — a blunt, unhedged denial of possibility, almost exclusively spoken and casual
そんな複雑な話、子どもには分かりっこないよ。
sonna fukuzatsu na hanashi, kodomo ni wa wakarikkonai yo.
A kid has no chance of understanding a story that complicated. casual
一晩でこんな量、終わらせっこないよ。
hitoban de konna ryou, owarasekkonai yo.
Doing this much in one night — we have no chance of finishing. casual
彼がそんな大胆な決断をするとは、誰も予想できっこなかった。
kare ga sonna daitan na ketsudan o suru to wa, dare mo yosou dekikkonakatta.
Nobody could have possibly predicted he'd make such a bold decision. neutral
Formation
{V-masu-stem}っこないattaches to ます-stem
Variant notes
- っこありません — the print-attested polite negative — even so, っこない rarely appears in genuinely formal writing at all; っこないです is the spoken-casual-polite default
Notes
Related patterns
Similar
そうもない infers "no sign of X" from present appearance and stays register-neutral; っこない is a flat, often emphatic denial with no appeal to evidence at all, and it barely leaves casual speech — 治りっこない sounds like a shrug, 治りそうもない sounds like an assessment.
Opposite
- 得るdenies-vs-affirms-possibility
The same possibility question, answered oppositely — 起こり得る affirms that a possibility exists at all, 起こりっこない flatly denies any chance of it.