Japanese Amari Nai: Not Very, Not Much, Not Often and Amari ni mo

The core idea: amari is the overflow, and nai says there is none

The noun amari means remainder, what is left when you have taken what you need. As an adverb it keeps that sense of going past the line. So amari tabemasen does not say I eat nothing. It says my eating does not go past the line, there is no surplus: I don't eat much.

This explains why amari feels gentle. You are not denying the thing, only denying the excess. A colleague asks over lunch whether you like spicy food, and you would rather not say no outright.

How the amari nai pattern is built

Amari is an adverb, so it does not conjugate and takes no particle. Put it before the word it limits and make that word negative in the normal way for its type. The negative is what changes, not amari.

Amari can sit directly before the negative word or earlier in the sentence. Amari o-sake o nomimasen and o-sake o amari nomimasen mean the same thing.

One word, three English translations

English needs three expressions where Japanese uses one, and the word that follows amari decides which. With an adjective it is degree, not very. With a verb of having or consuming it is quantity, not much. With a verb of doing it is usually frequency, not often. In each case the cup is simply not overflowing. Two friends catching up on the phone might cover all three in a minute.

Minimal pairs: one adverb changes the answer

Someone asks whether you drink. The four answers below are the same sentence with one word swapped, and each one places you somewhere different on the scale.

Notice that the plain negative, nomimasen, can sound like a refusal or a fixed policy. Adding amari softens it to a tendency, which is why it is so common when declining food, drink and invitations.

How it sounds in conversation: anmari and the trailing amari

In speech the word is usually anmari. It is not slang, only spoken, and you can use it with desu and masu. Among friends it shortens further to anma. In writing, keep amari.

Speakers also let amari stand alone and trail off, leaving the negative unsaid. Asked how the new restaurant was, a reply of un, amari, with a small shake of the head, is a complete answer: not great. The listener supplies the rest. Amari also softens negative requests, where it asks someone not to overdo something.

Beyond the basics: amari in a positive sentence

Remove the negative and the cup overflows. In positive sentences amari nearly always appears as amari ni or the stronger amari ni mo, followed by an adjective or verb, and the sentence usually goes on to say what the excess caused. Amari ni mo takai means it is excessively expensive, beyond what is reasonable.

Two related patterns are more literary. Amari no plus a noun puts the excess before the thing: amari no atsusa, heat beyond measure. A noun plus no amari, or a verb plus amari, names an emotion or effort so great that it led to an unintended result. You will meet these in novels and news reports, and a traveller telling the story of a bad trip might use the first two.

Beyond the basics: amari after a number

After a number and its counter, amari is the overflow in its most concrete form: that figure, plus a little. The extra is small and unspecified. This is the language of news, reports and speeches. It works best with round numbers, since a precise figure such as thirteen leaves no room for a remainder.

The noun also survives in arithmetic, where it is the remainder of a division, and in nouns such as amarimono, leftovers.

Neighbours: zenzen, sonna ni, hotondo and metta ni

Four other words live near amari, and each answers a slightly different question. Zenzen is zero. Hotondo with a negative is nearly zero, hardly any. Metta ni with a negative is about frequency only: rarely, on few occasions. Sonna ni with a negative means not that much, and it needs a reference point: something the other person just said, or what people expect. If a friend says your flat must be expensive, sonna ni takakunai answers their assumption, while amari takakunai only describes the rent.

Common mistakes with amari

The first mistake is amari with a positive verb to mean a little. Amari tabemasu is wrong. Learners build it because English a little is positive, but amari only produces the meaning not much when the verb is negative. Say amari tabemasen, or sukoshi tabemasu for I eat a little.

The second is translating not often with yoku. Yoku ikimasen is wrong for I don't go often. It copies the English pattern of negating often, but Japanese switches adverbs: amari ikimasen. The same goes for takusan: takusan arimasen sounds awkward for there isn't much, and amari arimasen is what people say.

The third is using bare amari for too. Amari takai desu is wrong for it is too expensive. Without a negative you need amari ni mo takai desu or, more commonly, takasugimasu.

The fourth is the adjective negative. Amari takai ja nai is wrong, because ja nai belongs to na-adjectives and nouns. An i-adjective changes its own ending: amari takakunai.