Thursday 6 August 2015

usage - way to use さっぱり (sappari) and すっかり (sukkari)


Maybe it's just me, but I keep mixing up As in



すっかり忘れてた


I've completely forgot



and




さっぱりわからない


I haven't the faintest idea / I really don't know



are there other expressions to use them?



Answer



Note: This is not a direct answer to your request for further usage examples of the two terms in different verbs. I rather try to explain the nuance with the help of a diagram and a pair of contrasting examples for each of the verb you gave.


As you state in the question, both すっかり and さっぱり is about the completeness of something. The difference is that they deal with different kinds of completeness:


すっかり - さっぱり diagram


すっかり is interested in the degree, or progress regarding completeness.



さっぱり's interest, on the other hand, is how completely clean it is of something.


For example:



食事をすっかり忘れてた: I've completely forgotten to eat. (= how much you forgot about a single thing)


日本語をきれいさっぱり忘れた: I've completely forgotten my Japanese. (= all the vocabs, syntax are gone from your head)


すっかり分からなくなった: [I thought I knew something, but] Now I'm back to zero.


さっぱり分からない: I don't have a clue.



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