ぜんぜん〜ない

ぜんぜん + negative means "not at all", "not … one bit" — the strongest degree of negation you'll meet at N5.

Like あまり, ぜんぜん must go with a negative form: ぜんぜんわかりません — I don't understand at all. Comparing degrees: あまり〜ない (not very…) is milder than ぜんぜん〜ない (not at all).

In young people's casual speech there is a usage like ぜんぜんいいよ with an affirmative, but at the N5 level and on the exam, you should only use ぜんぜん with negatives.

Examples

• お金(かね)がぜんぜんありません。

  I have no money at all.

• 漢字(かんじ)がぜんぜんわかりません。

  I don't understand kanji at all.

• ゆうべはぜんぜん寝(ね)ませんでした。

  I didn't sleep at all last night.

Related patterns

• あまり〜ない