Originally Posted by
jib71
Nihongo ga dekinai.
Japanese language can't.
Can't what?
Technically, dekiru and the potential forms of other verbs put the sentence into a sort of passive voice, so you are literally saying something like "Japanese is not possible." Another verb that similarly seems like an exception is "wakaru" (understand), which is intransitive, so you say "nihongo ga wakaru" which is literally like saying "Japanese is understood" though a decent translator would never translate it that way.