ないために

[Schizophrenic Cat]

Hi,

Let's say I want to say ''in order not to''. Can I go for something like this:

明日の試験で失敗しないために一生懸命勉強しました。

Or should I go for ように instead of ために? 'Not to fail' seems like a goal/purpose to me, but 失敗する itself doesn't seem to be a volitional verb. So I'm at an impasse here. My question does not only go for this specific example, though. I may or may not have constructed a good example sentence, but is it ever possible to use ために in a negative clause as I haven't got to see any post that says so or otherwise? Thanks in advance.

 

[gengo]

I assume you are trying to translate something like "I studied very hard so I wouldn't fail the test tomorrow." (Your source (English) sentence should be the title of this thread, so that future people can search the archive for those words.)

In that context, I would use 試験に落ちないように.

is it ever possible to use ために in a negative clause

Yes. Here is one example:

市内の新型コロナウイルス感染症患者数は、年明けから急激に上昇して以来、現在も近隣市町と比べても多い感染患者数を記録しています。これ以上感染を拡大させないために、市民の皆様には、改めて、手洗い、マスクの着用、3つの密を避けるなど、基本的な感染対策の徹底をお願いします。

However, ないために often means "because [negative]," rather than "in order to."