あまり・ぜんぜん・絶対: More Adverbs (Adv 4)

Introduction

This lesson is not really, not at all, DEFINITELY one of the lessons of all time. In other words, today we're covering some new adverbs.

Let's get to it.

The adverb trifecta

As a quick reminder before we get started, adverbs are words that modify verbs. For example "quickly" in "John runs quickly" modifies "runs". Another would be "bashfully" in "Mike bashfully devoured three large pepperoni pies" which modifies "devoured".

With that established, let's take a look at three extremely common adverbs in Japanese, starting with...

あまり: not super great

Structure

• 

  あまりNegative Verb/Negative い-Adjective
  Example:
  → あまり美味おいしくない。
  "Not that tasty.”

• 

  あまりNoun/な-Adjectiveではない・じゃない
  Example:
  → あまりきれいではない。
  "Not that clean.”