Totemo, Yoku, Amari, Zuibun and Zenzen
Totemo / Zuibun – Very / Extremely
Yoku – Often
Amari – Seldom
Zenzen – Totally / Not at all
Examples
That car is very expensive – Sono kuruma wa totemo takai desu.
I write letter very often – Tegami o yoku kakimasu
I seldom drink coffee – Ko-Hi- wa amari nomimasen
I don’t smoke cigarette at all – zenzen suimasen
You may notice that there is an “o” in the second example. In hiragana, the “o” is を instead of お. Don’s mix them up. When you are typing the “o”, you should type as “wo” instead of “o” but pronunciation wise, it should be pronounced as “o” or some people say “wo”.
“o” is a particle and used for indicating the case role of the phrase in relation to another word (used especially as a direct object marker). Example : I drink water will be translated as “Watashi wa mizu o nomimasu”. You are doing something to something. In this case, you are drinking the water. Another example : Denwa o kakemasu (Make a telephone call), Mado o shimemasu (Close the window)…..
Try it yourself with different phrases. It’s a good practice though.
December 14th, 2006 at 5:11 am
In this sentence (Sono kuruma wa totemo takai desu.) what does the “takai” stand for???
December 14th, 2006 at 5:16 am
Sorry about that one– I figured it out. (expensive) ^^0
December 14th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
sorry that I did not place the meaning in this post. I didn’t put the meaning in is because this word has already been covered in previous lessons and I expect all readers who follow all the lessons to remember. This should be the way for them to master this language.
You can search for a specific word here to find out the meaning.
Thanks.
December 18th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
May I ask a quick favor??
How would you say something like, “He’s never polite on the weekend.”? Where would I incorporate “weekend”?
Thank you so much!!
December 19th, 2006 at 12:11 am
Sorry, another question–
Do the Japanese use the words “he” and “she”?
How would you say something like, “She was never polite.”? Is that beyond level 2??? Am I getting ahead of myself? The curiosity is killin’ me! I can’t wait to ask my sensei these qustions…
December 19th, 2006 at 12:12 am
Please tell me if I’m bugging you……
December 19th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Hi AJ,
He’s never polite on the weekend – Kare wa shūmatsu ni teinei dewa arimasen (shūmatsu – weekend)
Yes, Japanese do use He (Kare) & She (Kanojo).
Sorry for the late reply as I’m just back from work.
December 20th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Thank you so much for that!! Makes a lot of sense. Don’t worry about late replies–I’m estatic that someone can help me with my Japanese!! *big smile*
December 27th, 2006 at 1:57 am
Doumo arigatou gozaimasu sensei for the replies.
Actually in my last post there is a thank you message…the one with 1-3 numbers. Its actually 1-4 and a thank you message at the end but I dont know why it messed up. Tonikaku mouichido shitsumon ga arimasu.(Just tryin to apply what I learned. If it sounds funny, tanomu oshiete kudasai onegai shimasu.)
yoku = frequently/often
yoku = skilllfully/nicely/properly
I skillfully write letter very often.
Need help on this one. Im thinking of 2 yoku to use in this sentence. Dame?
December 27th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Hi Rekcart,
Your Japanese is good. The words you use are accurate too.
Good question, yes, in fact there are many Japanese word with same pronounciation but different meaning. Although the pronounciation is the same but the writings are different.
Frequently – Yoku (よく) No Kanji
Skillfully – Yoku (良く)
There are even more words using the same pronounciation of “yoku” with different meaning
好く- same meaning as 良く
善く- same meaning as 良く
浴 – Bath
欲 – Greed, Want
This is why the word you use are very important to determine the exact meaning. Example : Watashi ga yoku yoku shimasu – I bath often. 😀
Hope this help
January 18th, 2007 at 6:13 am
Hi again!
I finally started school, and I’m having a little bit of a hard time with the Japanese. Could you translate a few sentences?
1.) This is not an ordinary bookshelf.
2.) I’m going to buy a chair tonight. (is it “watashi wa kyo no yoru isu wo kaimasu”?)
3.) This flourescent desk-lamp is wonderful.
4.) That waste-basket is not expensive.
Thank you once again…and again, and again, and…
January 18th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Hi AJ,
1.) This is not an ordinary bookshelf.
Kono honbana wa futsu janai desu OR
Kore wa futsu no honbana janai desu
Meaning : Honbana (Bookshelf), Futsu (Ordinary / Normal)
2.) I’m going to buy a chair tonight. (is it “watashi wa kyo no yoru isu wo kaimasu”?)
Correct
3.) This flourescent desk-lamp is wonderful.
Kono keikō denki sutando ga subarashii desu.
Meaning : Keikō (Fluorescent), Denki Sutando (Desk-Lamp), Subarashii (Wonderful)
4.) That waste-basket is not expensive.
Sono gomibako wa takaku arimasen.
Hope this help
January 30th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
tony first let say your website is AMAZING! I\’ve tried a few different ways of studying and your way is so simple and easy to understand and so useful too! arigatou gozaimasu!
can I ask.. why is it ko-hi WA amari nomimasen and not WO?
January 30th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Hi Colin,
Thank you and glad you like this site.
Pertaining to your question, the “wo” is used when the sentence is positive (ie. drink coffee – ko-hi wo nomimasu) but for negative, the “wo” will have to change to “wa”
Hope this help and feel free to send your question if you need more help and I will try my best to provide you the best answer.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Hello, my name is Indra, I’m study in japanase language an cultre.
Now I’m writing tesis about synonym taihen, totemo, and zuibun.
There are have a same meaning but what is the different. Thank U God Bless u all
Sumimasen eigo ga chotto hanasemasen machigattara gomen nasai
December 17th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Hi Indra, Yes, they are the same but it is used to express how strong is the “very”
Taihen – Extremely Strong
Zuibun – Very Strong
Totemo – Strong
Hope this help
December 27th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
hi, about “Ko-Hi- wa amari nomimasen”. doesnt that mean I seldom dont drink coffee, instead of I seldom drink coffee? should it b “kohi o amari nomimasu”? pls correct me if i’m wrong
December 29th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Hai Hastein,
“Amari” should be used before a negative verbs. In this example “I seldom drink coffee” is the correct one.
Thanks
January 11th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
erm…hi tony.
が
は
を
I’m not sure which to put after the noun in a sentence. i tried to figure that out since a long time ago. =( i hope u’ll help me. sorry for disturbing and THANK YOU! doumo arigatou gozaimasu! =)
January 12th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Hi Mazee,
が(ga) and は(wa) are the most confusing ones in Japanese language. Sometime even Japanese uses them wrongly. を(o/wo) would be the easy one.
For wa & ga, I have covered before. Please visit this page for more info : http://nihongo.anthonet.com/difference-between-wa-and-ga/
For “o/wo” – It is use after a noun. For example: I drink water – Mizu o nomimasu.
Watch movie – Eiga o mimasu.
Hope this help. Thanks
January 21st, 2010 at 10:30 am
Hi Tony, can I ask if janai and ja arimasen are interchangeable? And if so would you say ja arimasen or ja arimasen desu?
January 21st, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Hi Mark, both meant the same.
“ja nai” = in-polite form (friend’s conversation)
“ja arimasen” = polite form
Would you say ja arimasen or ja arimasen desu?
This depends on situation. Normally, we don’t use “desu” after “arimasen” or “arimasu”. However, when we use the in-polite form “ja nai”, you can use “desu”.
January 27th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for teaching us. However,I would prefer that you could include Japanese writings in your explanation. I think its a good practice to get used and know Japanese writings as well instead of reading only the letters.
February 1st, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Hi, I forgot to ask you a question. Hope you don’t mind. I watched drama and comedy japanese show and they pronounced expensive as “takaa” instead of “takai”. I can’t seem to find any answers as they only explain the meaning of takai. Any difference?
February 1st, 2011 at 7:03 pm
It can’t be. I believe they use “takaiiii” same as expensiveeeeee
February 2nd, 2011 at 12:59 am
Nope, I even read and check up the japanese writings on the screen and it spelt “takaa”.
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:22 am
Then most probably a action to express expensive. It is not actual Japanese
April 6th, 2011 at 8:10 am
Hi Tony,
this was really helpful for my japanese studies. our teacher just started going over verbs with us the other week, and I’m just wondering in your example why it is ‘koohii WA amari nomimaSEN’ rather than ‘koohii WO amari nomimaSU’?
i’m confused with the use of wa instead of wo, as well as a negative verb. i’m just a beginner so verbs are very often going right over my head!
thanks in advance!
April 6th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
“Amari nomimasen” means “seldom drink”. You can’t use “amari nomimasu” in this case. “yoku nomimasu” will be “often drink”
August 6th, 2011 at 7:06 am
Just throwing it out there that a lot of the time in Japanese we drop the “i” at the end of the adjective if we’re talking fast or something like that. “Takaa!” Is the same as “takai”. Same thing happens with “samui” or “atsui”. I’ll say samu! or Atsu! But I’m Osakan so we say stuff different ;P
September 21st, 2011 at 2:00 am
Hi Tony,
Hope you can enlighten me on japanese’s counter usage as in hitotsu, futatsu, ikkai, nikkai etc. I searched high and low for extra info when we count more than ten. Do we have ju hitotsu, ju futatsu, ju ikkai and such? How about 20 and above?
Thanks alot
September 21st, 2011 at 6:48 pm
For ~tsu, from 11, you have to use Jūikko, Jūniko, and so on
For ~kai, from 11, just add jū and for 20, just add nijū and so on
Hope this help
August 25th, 2013 at 10:56 pm
this is nice. thanks!
September 4th, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Hello! I have a question: If yoku is used with a negative verb, does it change the meaning of the sentence?
Ex: Yoku miemasen kara, mae no hou ni suwarimashou.
(Also, can you tell me please how do you translate this sentence?)
September 4th, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Hi Becca,
The meaning of your example is:
Let’s sit at the same area/seat because I can’t see well
September 4th, 2014 at 5:12 pm
Arigatou gozaimasu!
November 12th, 2019 at 8:36 pm
For the last one – I don’t smoke cigarette at all – zenzen suimasen
doesnt zenzen suimasen just mean , not at all im sorry?
where does the cigarette come into it?
I hope people can start replying I know its been a loooooong time but this is a great site and its been helping me – absolute beginner
August 12th, 2021 at 1:58 am
すう- すいます
suu – suimasu verb means ‘to smoke’
so Zenzen suimasu would be roughly “I don’t smoke at all”. Although cigarette is not specifically mentioned, I think it is just understood.