Monday 20 June 2016

grammar - How to tell よく (often) apart from よく (good)?


Whenever I see 「よく」, I have to ask someone whether it means "often" or "good".


For example, here is a sentence from my book:



クラスへ行って、先生の講義をよく聞いて、ノートをよく取り、それをよく覚えれば、試験でいい点がもらえる。



I thought all three 「よく」s meant "often" (eg. "often takes notes"), but a Japanese friend said they all mean "good" (eg. "takes good notes"). He said "often takes notes" would be 「よくノートを取り」. However, he doesn't know why.


How can you tell the two usages apart?



Answer



As Yuu wrote, there is a tendency that よく immediately before a verb often means “well” and that よく at the beginning of a sentence often means “often,” but it is by no means a firm rule. Word order is one of the clues, but in the end, the distinction depends on the context.



For example, suppose that someone said



よく先生の講義を聞いていれば、試験でいい点がもらえる。



Does it really mean “You will get a good mark on an exam if you are listening to your teacher’s lecture often (like two thirds of the time)”? It may, depending on the context, but I think that in most contexts, it is more likely that the speaker meant “You will get a good mark on an exam if you are listening to your teacher’s lecture carefully,” even though this means that the speaker used a slightly less natural word order.


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