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.

  • あの店(みせ)の前(まえ)に沢山(たくさん)人(ひと)が集(あつ)まっている。
    There are a lot of people gathering in front of that store. (Focuses on the store. I wonder why there are so many people in front of that store)
  • あの店(みせ)の前(まえ)に沢山(たくさん)の人(ひと)が集(あつ)まっている。
    There are a lot of people gathering in front of that store. (Focuses on the people. The amount of people gathering up in front of that store is unbelievable)

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.

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.

    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.

    たくさんの服(ふく)を買(か)いたいです。

    I want to buy a lot of clothes.

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        • Genki I 2nd Edition

          Page 112

        • みんなの日本語 I

          Page 62 [CH 9]

        • Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide

          Page 78

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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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