あまり・かなり: "So much/considerably"

Introduction

Welcome, to the Great Grammatical Remainder lesson! We'll be diving further into 「あまり」 and examining two uses that we didn't get to cover back in the Apprentice region. Then, we'll switch gears and introduce a new, spicy, adverb that you have yet to encounter. Time to grammar!

～あまり: An excess of awesomeness

構成こうせい

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  Verbあまり(に)

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  な-adjective(な)/noun(の)あまり(に)

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  い-adjective + (さ・み)(の)あまり(に)
  Example:
  → ゲームをしすぎたあまり、目めが真まっ赤かになった。
  ”I played games too much and my eyes turned red.”

In a literal sense, the word 「あまり」, when functioning as a noun, means "remainder" or "excess". We didn't really touch on this the last time we talked about it, but I did mention that あまり can only be paired with a negative verb/adjective. This is an important clue in understanding how あまり works.

When we used it before, it always had a negative buddy to hang around with:

The 「あまり～ない」 pattern allowed us to say that something "isn't very X", and now that we know that あまり means "remainder" or "excess", we can examine this more literally.

When we say 「あまり～ない」, we're saying that there "isn't an excess of X".

Which begs the question, what happens when we remove あまり's buddy 「ない」?

Simple! When we remove the negative, we end up saying that there is an excess of something. When we use あまり in this way, it's usually to say that "Due to an excess of X, Y happened/happens/is the case." But of course, the literal translation doesn't tend to get used, and so it's probably better to remember this usage of あまり as "X was/is so Y that...". It's also worth keeping in mind that for this usage, あまり is a noun, rather than an adverb. We'll be dealing with あまり as an adverb again soon, but first, let's see some examples!

So, we use の to attach あまり to the noun 緊張きんちょう, and say: "Due to an excess of nervousness...". But again, the best translations usually avoid translating あまり too literally.

Also, take note of the に following あまり in example 1.2. This に is optional and is often dropped for this usage of あまり. We'll cover another pattern in the second half of this lesson where we'll need to include に.

An important thing to note when attaching あまり to different parts of speech is that it is quite common to first "nounify" い-adjectives using み or さ. Once nounified, we then attach it using の:

Taking this example in a literal sense as well, we have "Due to an excess of tastiness..." This situation honestly sounds very familiar.

Nominalizing your い-adjective sounds a bit more "correct" in a textbook sense, but あまり can also simply attach to their dictionary form. Here are a couple more examples using い-adjectives:

As usual, な-adjectives attach using な.

As for verbs, we can directly attach あまり:

And it's pretty much as easy as that!

Mini recap:

あまり refers to an "excess", and we can think of ～あまり as denoting an "excess of X", with the more natural translation usually being "X was so Y that..."

Now we'll fancy things up a bit by adding my favorite particle (and yours), に!

あまり + に: It's あまり... plus に!

構成こうせい

• 

  あまりに(も)Adverb/adjective

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  あまりのNounに
  Example:
  → あまりにもおいしかったから、全部ぜんぶ食たべてしまった。
  ”It was so good that I ate it all.”

The big difference between the section above, and this one, is that now we'll be modifying the word that comes after あまり instead. Now, あまり is an adverb, which means we'll have to use the に particle! Let's take a look.

あまりに is modifying 好すき, to give us 「あまりに好すき」 ("To like something so much that...").

Often, you'll also see the も particle thrown on the end of あまりに. This is purely for emphatic effect (think "So much that..." vs "SO much that").

One thing to watch out for is that we can't directly attach あまりに to a noun, so we use の, and the に follows the noun instead. Check it:

The pesky adjective-turned-noun 「嬉うれしさ」 sandwiched its way in between あまり and に! That's just the way it goes with nouns, they think they're too good for the rest of us...

Luckily, nouns are the only exception to the rule of attaching あまりに directly to the next word.

Let's take a look at a couple more examples of あまりに～ before we move on to uncharted adverbial territory.

It's common to see あまりに sentences that are sort of "flipped around" using nominalization, like this:

This sentence is a bit different than our previous examples because 「あまりに(adjective)」 isn't followed by any statement. Rather, the speed at which Mike eats is simply described as being "excessively fast". That's it. That's the statement.

It's also common to combine あまりに with ので・から as well as 過すぎる:

Overall, you're pretty much able to follow あまりに with whatever you'd like (just not verbs). So have some fun with it!

Now for something brand-new!

A new adverb appears: かなり, no, not like the bird!

構成こうせい

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  かなりverb/adjective/(の)noun
  Example:
  → スティーブの筋肉きんにく、かなり大おおきくなったね。
  ”Steve's muscles have gotten considerably bigger haven't they?”

Another common way to say how X something is, is by using かなり.

かなり is very easy to use. It's a straight-up adverb that can attach to any kind of speech, and says that something is "considerably X", "quite X", or sometimes, "fairly X".

Let's see it in action!

Now with a verb!

What about a な-adjective?

Yup, no problem!

And we can even directly attach to nouns!

Just keep in mind that かなり is modifying 長ながい, not the noun 髪かみの毛け. If we do want かなり to modify a noun, we need to attach it using の.

With 「かなりの時間じかん」 being "a considerable amount of time".

So really the only thing you have to be careful about in regard to かなり is that it can show up at different points in a sentence.

For example:

In both cases, かなり is modifying 上手じょうず, but in 3.6a it just so happens to be separated a bit.

And that concludes this lesson! Now you have two (and a half) new ways to say that something is "very X". I hope you enjoyed learning all about あまり, even though it can be a bit extra, haha...

Summary

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  あまり means "excess" or "remainder".

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  When used as a noun, あまり modifies the word that comes before it, and is used to form "X was/is so Y, that..." statements.

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  When used as an adverb, あまり modifies the following word, and attaches with the に particle. If the following word is a noun, the pattern becomes 「あまりの(noun)に...」.

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  かなり is an adverb that means "considerably" or "quite".

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  かなり can attach to verbs, adjectives, or nouns.