I know that よく means 'often' or 'well', but what is the meaning of it when it
is used before わからない? Does it mean 'I often don't understand', or does it mean
'I don't really know'?
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2021-06-26T09:27:52.020
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question
grammar
What does the 'よく' mean in 'よくわからない'?
The meaning of よく here is "well". よくわかる means to understand something well, or
thoroughly. In contrast, よくわからない in speech would indeed be "I don't really
know" or "I'm not sure". Here's a helpful
[link](https://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/%E3%82%88%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8F%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84)
for understanding how to use this in various contexts.

It's worth mentioning that even though it technically means "I don't
understand (it) thoroughly", which may give off the impression that the
subject does understand the topic on a basic level, many may turn to this
expression even when they're totally clueless about a topic e.g.
すみません、よくわかりません。

You may also come across よくわかっていない, which is usable in a more academic or
report-type context, when something is not well understood in general. e.g.
この病の原因はまだよくわかっていない ("the cause of this disease is still largely unknown").

Finally, if you want to strictly say "I don't understand (something) often",
you would say something like 分からない(事/ところ/時)がよくある, which can be replaced by
よくわからない in most contexts anyway because it makes sense that you would not
understand something often when you don't understand something thoroughly.
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answer