Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sorting Out Japanese Adverbs

One of the most confusing word types for me to learn in Japanese is adverbs; probably because it often just a matter of a few degrees between meanings. Just as with English, for example: quite cold, fairly cold, a little cold, sort of cold, pretty cold, and so on. They all mean approximately the same thing, and differ only slightly. In one of my old textbooks (which has been permanently borrowed) there were a few basic linear diagrams of the degree of some Japanese adverbs, and I’ve searched for something similar on the internet, but the best example that I could find with them being “ranked” was a medical survey of patients talking about how well a certain medication worked for them, or something like that ^__^ Anyway, I spent a little while trying to compile some sorted lists, some of them may be interchangeable between the groups, and I know there’s a lot more adverbs out there, so feel free to suggest additions or corrections!

PROBABILITY/CERTAINTY 見込み/ 確信
絶対に---ぜったいに---absolutely, unconditionally
確かに/確実に---たしかに/かくじつに---definitely, certainly, reliably
きっと---きっと---surely, almost certainly
恐らく---おそらく---probably
多分---たぶん---perhaps, maybe
多分~ない---たぶん~ない---unlikely, maybe not
恐らく~ない---おそらく~ない---improbably
絶対に~ない---ぜったいに~ない---never

FREQUENCY 頻度
いつも---いつも---always
大抵---たいてい---usually, almost always
しばしば---しばしば---frequently
よく---よく---often, well
時々/ 時に---ときどき/ときに---sometimes, now and again
まれに---まれに---infrequently
滅多に~ない---めったにない---rarely, seldom
全然~ない---ぜんぜん~ない---never