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How to Say ‘It isn’t moving forward.’ in Japanese

進まない。

susuma nai

[soo-soo-mah nah-ee]

💬 Usage Tip: Japanese often leaves out the subject, so [進まない。] can mean "it isn't moving forward" without saying what "it" is. You'll hear this a lot in status updates when the context is already obvious.

Phrase Breakdown

進ま

susuma

[soo-soo-mah]

advance; proceed

From 進む, meaning to move forward or make progress.

Example

話がなかなか進まない。

The discussion does not move forward easily.

ない

nai

[nah-ee]

not

A negative ending for verbs and adjectives in plain form.

Example

今日はうまくいかない。

It is not going well today.

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