Japanese has an expression corresponding to the English expression, “not at all”. In negative sentences, we can use the word, “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)”, with the auxiliary verb, “nai ない”, which is used to make negative expressions. I believe that a short example is much better than long explanations, so please take a look at the example below:

zenzen ki ni nara nai (全然気にならない)

I don’t mind at all.

Here, “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” is an adverb and means “wholly”, “entirely” or “completely”. “Ki 気(き)” is a noun and can mean “mind”, “spirit” or “mood”. “Ni に” is a case particle used to express the result of action described by the following verb. “Nara なら” is the imperfective form of the verb, “naru なる”, meaning “become”, “get” or “turn”. “Nai ない” is an auxiliary verb which is used to deny other words like “not” and make negative expressions.

Like the English expression, “not at all”, the Japanese expression “zenzen nai 全然ない(ぜんぜんない)” can have other words or phrases in the middle of it. As you can see above, the Japanese expression, “zenzen nai 全然ない(ぜんぜんない)”, is really similar to “not at all”. Only one difference is that the Japanese auxiliary verb, “nai ない”, usually changes the form of the connected verb. In the example, the verb “naru なる” is affected by the auxiliary verb and changed to its imperfective form. Contrary to this, in English, the word “not” usually doesn’t change the following verb itself.

When we hear the word “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” in conversations, we usually expect a negative verb, phrase or expression to appear. Furthermore, it’s not too much to say that the word “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” itself is considered to have a negative nuance. This means, when we hear it, we can guess what they want to say without hearing a full sentence. Actually, depending on the context, we can skip a verb or expression following the word “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)”. I believe that this is quite different from the actual use of the English expression, “not at all”. In English, “not” always comes first, so we don’t have to expect a following verb or expression to be denied.

So far, I’ve explained “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” and the use of it. However, the use of “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” has been changing these days. Japanese young people use it without negative nuances, for example.

zenzen suki (全然好き)

I like it at all.

Here, “suki 好き(すき)” is a verb meaning “like” or “love” depending on the context.

To be honest, I’m not sure how to translate the Japanese expression using “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” in a positive way. The translated sentence is not correct from the grammatical point of view. Nevertheless, young people understand its nuance and use it without any confusion. This is how they use “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” today.

As I already explained, Japanese people usually expect negative expressions after “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)”. Therefore, we feel weird when a sentence starting with “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” ends with a positive expression. After young people started to use it in a positive way, a problem naturally appeared. The reason why we could skip a phrase or expression which follows “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” was that “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” itself contained a negative nuance. However, young people don’t use a full sentence even after the word started to be used in both ways, negative and positive. No wonder that an argument occurred among a lot of people on the use of “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)”. Interestingly, after the argument, people found out the fact that “zenzen 全然(ぜんぜん)” could be used in both ways. Old great writers would use it in a positive way. This story tells us that the use of words can be easily changed and also that the change could bring the language back to where it used to be.

As usual, I’m digressing. To be honest, I don’t know how to close this article. I still have a lot to talk about, but my explanations are already long for one post. I will explain remaining things and add detailed explanations when I have a chance.