48344
I have been studying the adverbs and in the grammar book they said that there
are some negative adverbs that means that when you use it the next verb must
be in negative form, for example:

  * > あまり わかり **ません**

  * > ぜんぜん 出来 **ない**

But I found the expression **ぜんぜん違う** shouldn't it be **ぜんぜん違わない**? how do I
know when to put the verb in a positive form or in a negative form?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T19:26:18.727
48342
2017-06-12T23:42:43.687
19322
question
grammar word-choice usage
Why in the expression "ぜんぜん違う" the verb is in positive?
The 違う is already negative. It means "to differ" (to _not_ be the same) as
opposed to "to be the same". わかる and 出来る are positive. It's in the meaning.

> ぜんぜん違わない

Would mean "completely not wrong" (which is weird to me but I'm no expert)

They probably call them negative adverbs because of the vibe they give when
saying them, but if you look in the dictionary their original non-contextual
meanings are positive. That's why you must add a negative meaning to them.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T20:03:55.050
48343
2017-06-12T23:42:43.687
2017-06-12T23:42:43.687
10548
10548
48342
answer
「全然」has two definitions:

  1. not at all (with negative verb)

  2. wholly, entirely, completely 

Therefore, it's meaning is based on whether the verb that follows it is in the
affirmative or the negative. I'm guessing about 99% of the time you will see
it used in conjunction with a negative verb, but every once in awhile you will
see it used in the affirmative.

「全然違う」is one example, as is 「全然大丈夫」(I'm/It's totally fine), which is more like
a set phrase. You will also occasionally see something like 「全然だめになった」(It was
completely spoiled/ruined), which is similar to 「全然違う」in that 「だめ」already has
a negative connotation and so to add a negative verb on top of it would make
it a double negative, thus reversing the meaning.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T20:32:28.353
48344
2017-06-12T20:32:28.353
19784
48342
answer
The standard answer is that 全然 is most naturally paired with negatives, and 絶対
with positives. However, modern Japanese has seen more usage of 全然 as meaning
both "not at all" and also "completely, absolutely," replacing 絶対, and vice-
versa. The end result is that in most cases, using 全然 or 絶対 yields the "same"
meaning, but the context is such that you'd typically want to use 全然 for
negatives, and for positives where the affirmation is negative, such as 全然大丈夫
"It's completely alright" (colloquially, "It's not a problem at all"), and 絶対
for stronger positive affirmations. 絶対大丈夫 comes off way stronger than 全然大丈夫,
despite the fact they mean basically the same thing. It's a way of downplaying
your tone.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T21:27:35.920
48345
2017-06-12T21:27:35.920
21684
48342
answer