Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 8: 2/13

沢山(たくさん)Many, A lot of, Plenty, Enough

たくさん often comes directly before verbs

Structure

たくさん + Phrase
たくさん +（の） + Noun

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Noun

  • Word Type

    Ordinary

  • Register

    Standard

About たくさん

There are many cases in Japanese where a noun will appear as an adverb, particularly with words that are describing amounts. たくさん, or 沢山(たくさん) as it is regularly seen, is one of those words. たくさん means 'a lot', or 'many' in Japanese, and can be used before a phrase, or directly before a noun, when separated via の.

Caution

たくさん may be used before a noun without also using の. However, in this case, it will feel more like たくさん is describing the whole phrase, rather than just the noun it is in front of. If you strongly want to highlight the noun, using の would be best.

In these examples, the only difference is that the sentence with の feels like the speaker is putting extra focus on the people, rather than the gathering that is happening.

Antonyms

Examples

--:--

    たくさんありますから。食(た)べてください。

    There is plenty. So, please eat.

    たくさん雪(ゆき)が降(ふ)りました。

    A lot of snow fell.

    たくさん仕事(しごと)をします。

    I will do a lot of work.

    日本語(にほんご)の勉強(べんきょう)をたくさんしました。

    I did a lot of Japanese studying.

    彼(かれ)はたくさんの本(ほん)を読(よ)む。

    He reads a lot of books.

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  • Online

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        • Genki I 2nd Edition

          Page 112

        • Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide

          Page 78

        • みんなの日本語 I

          Page 62 [CH 9]

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      たくさん – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (10 in total)

      • EdBunpro

        EdBunpro

        Rather than butcher an explanation, this should help distinguish the two pretty well imo! If you’re still tripped up let me know and I can explain it further

      • Shaun1995ad

        Shaun1995ad

        Honestly, I still don’t really understand, the explanation you posted says that けっこう is relative, so if I used it in the context of the sentence I posted above, would it mean something like

        ‘‘I have many Studio Ghibli films (relative to listener?)’’
        ‘‘I have many Studio Ghibli films (relative to my other movies?)’’

      • FredKore

        FredKore

        けっこう – I have a lot (for me, but maybe not as much as other people)
        たくさん – I have a lot (for anyone)

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