Most Effective Ways To Use ずいぶん, とても and かなり
ずいぶん, とても and かなり make you complicated, isn’t it? There are subtle differences. Even if you are complicated now, don’t worry about it. You would understand what their differences are after reading this. Let me introduce the way to correctly use them today!
ずいぶん (zuibun)
Very / A lot / So (than I thought)
Although ずいぶん is the exact same meaning of とても, there are subtle differences between them. The tips for using it that when using ずいぶん in a sentence, something is much bigger, smaller, higher, shorter, etc THAN YOU THOUGHT. For instance, if you ask a clerk, ‘How much is this cup?’ and the clerk answered ‘It’s $60.’, you could say “ずいぶん高いですね。(It’s so expensive (than I thought).)”. This means you thought the price of the cup is cheaper than $60 and you were thinking the price of it was $10 or so. That means when using ずいぶん in the sentence, you could show your surprise, unlike とても. The basic ways to use it is “___はずいぶんA。(___ very/so A.)”, etc. For instance, “あれはずいぶん高い。(It’s very expensive.)”, “これはずいぶん大きい。(This is really big.)”, “それはずいぶん小さい。(It’s so small.)”, etc. Everyone could use “ずいぶん” as casual, polite and formal such as “これはずいぶん’おお’小きいよ。(This is really big.)” as casual and “これはずいぶん大きいです。(This is really big.)” as polite and formal.




とても (totemo)
Very / A lot / So
とても(totemo) is a simple meaning than ずいぶん. It means “very, a lot and so”. とても is the exact same meaning of ずいぶん, however, it doesn’t include “surprise”, unlike ずいぶん. You would simply use とても as an emphasizing word. The basic ways to use it is “___はとてもA。(___ is/are very A.)”, etc. For instance, “あれはとても高い。(It’s very expensive.)”, “これはとても大きい。(This is so big.), “それはとても小さいです。(It is very small.), etc. When emphasizing とても, it would be とっても. Furthermore, the slang of とても is “チョー”, “めっちゃ”, “バリ”, etc. For instance, とても遠い would be チョー遠い, めっちゃ遠い and バリ遠い. You would use them to people who you get along with. You should use とても to your boss, elderly people and for business letters instead of them. Everyone could use “とても” as casual, polite and formal such as “これはともて大きいよ。(This is really big.)” as casual and “これはとても大きいです。(This is really big.)” as polite and formal. Lastly, if you say “あれはずいぶん高い。(That is very expensive.)”, you are amazed that price which is very expensive than you are thinking. Whereas, if you say “あれはとても高い。(That is very expensive.)”, the fact that that thing is just very expensive.


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かなり (kanari)
Quite
かなり means “Quite” and a degree of these words would be かなり < とても < ずいぶん. When you think something is quite many, you would say かなり多い. When you think something is so many, you would say とても多い. Finally, when you didn’t think something is so many, you would use ずいぶん多い.




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