Hi,
Ive come accross another set of questions in my course book, and it'd be easy to fool an answer, but i don't actually understand what going on.
More specifically, the placement of あまり in : 妹はあまり目が大きくない doesn't seem to make any sense to me. Isn't 妹は目があまり大きくない more natural?
Thanks
Sqz
あまり
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squarezebra
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あまり
Spend less time thinking, and more time doing.
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Yudan Taiteki
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Re: あまり
Not being a native speaker I can't say for sure what's natural, but both sentences seem fine to me.squarezebra wrote:Hi,
Ive come accross another set of questions in my course book, and it'd be easy to fool an answer, but i don't actually understand what going on.
More specifically, the placement of あまり in : 妹はあまり目が大きくない doesn't seem to make any sense to me. Isn't 妹は目があまり大きくない more natural?
-Chris Kern
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Harisenbon
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Re: あまり
I am also not native, but am surrounded by them, and both sound completely natural.Yudan Taiteki wrote:Not being a native speaker I can't say for sure what's natural, but both sentences seem fine to me.
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keatonatron
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Re: あまり
I think the first one sounds better, actually.
There is a little difference in nuance, of course.
The difference would be something like:
1. Big eyes : not really
2. Eyes : not really big
I guess you could translate them as:
She doesn't really have big eyes.
versus
Her eyes aren't very big.
And, like always........ *gasp* Context is super important
My feeling is that if you were talking about people with big eyes and someone suggested your sister, the first sentence would be more appropriate. If you were, for example, simply talking about your (Japanese) sister and someone asked "Oh, does she look western?", the second sentence would work better.
There is a little difference in nuance, of course.
The difference would be something like:
1. Big eyes : not really
2. Eyes : not really big
I guess you could translate them as:
She doesn't really have big eyes.
versus
Her eyes aren't very big.
And, like always........ *gasp* Context is super important
My feeling is that if you were talking about people with big eyes and someone suggested your sister, the first sentence would be more appropriate. If you were, for example, simply talking about your (Japanese) sister and someone asked "Oh, does she look western?", the second sentence would work better.