あまり is a very flexible word in Japanese, that is used in several different grammar points. When paired with the ない form of a word, it translates to 'not very (A)', or 'hardly (A)'. To pair あまり (or the casual form, あんまり) with another word, we just need to place it at the beginning of a phrase, or directly before the ない statement.
Fun Fact
Although あまり~ない is regularly translated as 'not very' the literal translation is closer to 'not excessively (A)'. This is due to 余り (the kanji which this word comes from), meaning 'excessive', or 'to be in excess'.
あまり has this meaning of 'excessive' in all of its grammar points, and the nuance will only change based on whether the sentence itself is positive (does not use ない), or negative (uses ない).
Antonymes
Contenu lié
Divers
Exemples
--:--
このケーキはあまり美味しくない。
This cake isn't very delicious.
あまり肉を食べない。
I don't eat very much meat.
あまり大変なことではないから、心配いらないよ。
It is not really a big deal, so you don't have to worry. (isn't that)
寿司をあまり食べたいと思わない。
I don't really think I want to eat sushi.
この漢字の意味があまり分かりません。
I don't really understand the meaning of this kanji.
Obtenez plus d'exemples !
Les utilisateurs Premium ont accès à 12 phrases d'exemple pour chaque point de grammaire.
あまり comes right before adjectives, verbs, and nouns. あまりいい車くるまではない, and この車はあまりよくない may seem similar, but it has a slight (very slight) difference in nuance, but it is just mostly a difference in how the sentence was ordered. It similar to saying ‘this car isn’t that great’ and ‘this isn’t a great car’. The nuance of those sentences change a little depending on the context, but other than word order, the meaning is basically the same.
We hope that help!
Salatrel
Hello everyone!
For the usage with the な-adjective and the noun, is there also a polite form, like
あまりきれいではありません。?
Thank you for your help in advance!
Balduran
Example one appears to show that い adjectives lose their last い and are replaced with く, (美味しくない)before adding ない but the structure section of the page doesn’t say anything about this. Am I missing something?
Des questions à propos de あまり~ない ? Rejoignez-nous pour discuter, poser vos questions et apprendre ensemble !