ぜんぜん

The adverb ぜんぜん (全然) is used to emphasize degree. It has two main usages depending on whether the sentence is negative or positive.

With negative predicates – "not at all"

The most standard and common use of ぜんぜん is with negative forms of verbs, adjectives, and copulas. It means "not at all", "not in the least", or "not even a little", strongly emphasizing the negation.

This is the traditional and universally accepted usage. It pairs naturally with any negative ending: 〜～ない, 〜～ません, 〜～なかった, 〜～くない, etc.

With positive predicates – "totally" / "completely" (colloquial)

In modern casual Japanese, ぜんぜん is used with positive predicates to mean "totally", "completely", or "perfectly fine". This usage is very common in everyday conversation, especially among younger speakers.

While widespread in spoken Japanese, this positive usage is considered informal and is best avoided in formal writing or exams. In formal contexts, stick to the negative pattern.

Common patterns

ぜんぜん often appears in responses to questions or concerns:

It can also be used with だめ or ちがう違う to strongly deny something: