余(あま)り～ないNot very, Not much, Not really, Hardly

Structure

あまり⁽¹⁾ + Verb［ない］
あまり⁽¹⁾ + ［い］Adjective［ない］
あまり⁽¹⁾ + Noun + ではない⁽²⁾
あまり + ［な］Adjective + ではない⁽²⁾

⁽¹⁾ あんまり
⁽²⁾ じゃない

Details

About あまり～ない

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(あま)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).

Antonyms

Examples

--:--

このケーキはあまり美味(おい)しくない。

This cake isn't very delicious.

あまり肉(にく)を食(た)べない。

I don't eat very much meat.

あまり大変(たいへん)なことではないから、心配(しんぱい)いらないよ。

It is not really a big deal, so you don't have to worry. (isn't that)

寿司(すし)をあまり食(た)べたいと思(おも)わない。

I don't really think I want to eat sushi.

この漢字(かんじ)の意味(いみ)があまり分(わ)かりません。

I don't really understand the meaning of this kanji.

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あまり～ない – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (16 in total)

Jake
not very・not much, not really・hardly
Structure
- あまり + Verb[ない
- あまり + いAdj[くない
- あまり + Noun + じゃない/ではない
- あまり + なAdj + じゃない/ではない
View on Bunpro
deltacat3
What action is も performing in this example sentence?

あまり好きじゃない食べ物もたまに食べなくてはいけない。
Sometimes you have to eat food that you don’t really enjoy.
Pushindawood
Hey! This just means “also” here. I had originally omitted “also” from the English translation to make it sound more natural. I have updated the English sentence to read: “Sometimes you also have to eat food that you don’t really enjoy.”
deltacat3
Awesome, thank you for the clarification! @Pushindawood
TheUltimateAbsol
彼女は私の気持をあまり理解していないと思おもう
I don’t really think that she understands how I feel

Perhaps unrelated, but I’m confused on the translation.
Shouldn’t it be “I think that she doesn’t really understand how I feel”?
Johnathan-Weir
@TheUltimateAbsol Yeah the あまり is connected to the 理解していない not the 思う so that translation might be a bit closer.
Pushindawood
@TheUltimateAbsol Thank you for drawing this to our attention. I have updated the translation for this sentence. Cheers!
ilyakamens
最近彼のことをあまり考えてあげていない。

For the above sentence, which definition of あげる is used for あげて, and what’s the meaning of 考えてあげて? Would it be possible to replace the hiragana for that verb with the kanji?
ilyakamens
あまり 好き じゃない 食物もたまに食なくてはいけない。

Would also love some help breaking down this sentence. Specifically, the end with: 食なくてはいけない
mrnoone
@ilyakamens

Hey

あまり好きじゃない食物もたまに食べなくてはいけない
too much | like | is not | food** | also | sometimes | must eat***

*with negative expression it can be translated as “not really”, “not much” and so on
** here the word 食物 is modified (described by) expression あまり好きじゃない, in English when the noun is modified we have to add expressions like “that”, “which”, “whose” and so on. So we will add it here to make translation more natural (food that you don’t really like)
*** なくてはいけない is a conjugation that means “must”, so together with 食べる it means “must eat”.

If we connect all of those we get:
Sometimes you also have to eat food that you don’t really enjo...
ilyakamens
なくてはいけない is what confused me; I think that’s new grammar I haven’t yet learned. Thank you!
Pep95
Hello!

This also goes for the other あまり grammar points of course, but is this あまり the same as 余り? I know people don’t write the grammar with the kanji itself, but it kind of makes sense to me (not much → no excess) and knowing it for sure would definitely help me with understanding sentences in a more intuitive way.
mrnoone
@Pep95
Hey

Yes, it is exactly the same あまり！

Cheers!
driscoll
I’m a bit confused as to where the あまりgoes + the negative good. The one with “This car isn’t that great”
is あまり いい車くるまではない

But why isn’t it この車はあまりよくない like the example for “This cake isn’t very delicious.”
Fuga
Hey there @driscoll !

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?