Vocab power: stop saying “totemo”
Totemo means “very” in Japanese, also sometimes pronounced とっても/tottemo with a kicked “t” for added emphasis. Because it is so easy to pronounce, so broad in meaning and so simple in grammar, it is one of the most useful words in the Japanese language. “Power-words” like totemo great for speed-learning, and non-Japanese pick up on these words with unparalleled ease… However, all too often those learners end up clinging to these words to a far greater degree than they should and for a much longer time than they should.
While heavy reliance on a select few power-words may be sufficient for travelers, for anyone who wants to understand everyday Japanese as it is spoken by native speakers, or perhaps someday even sound intelligent speaking Japanese, these words can be almost like an invisible barrier to more advanced vocabulary. Of these words, totemo is easily one of the most overused. So to help Japanese learners cure their addiction to this intoxicatingly easy word, I’ve collected 7 alternatives to help you lay off the totemo juice and expand your linguistic horizons.
1. Say かなり (kanari) instead
Kanari is a fabulous word, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s meaning and usage is exactly the same as totemo so you can start using it like a pro right away, there are no hidden nuance traps waiting to bite your leg off and your Japanese will instantly sound much more confident and natural. The only catch is you have to make the Japanese “r” sound to say it, which can be a little tricky for beginners.
And actually this word is a little more flexible than totemo. Kanari can also be used with nouns if you glue them together with the ‘no‘ particle, although you should note that using it that way comes off as kanari casual.
昨日の試験はとても難しかったです。
Kinou no shiken wa totemo muzukashikatta desu.
Yesterday’s test was very difficult.
昨日の試験はかなり難しかったです。
Kinou no shiken wa kanari muzukashikatta desu.
Yesterday’s test was quite difficult.
彼はかなりの勉強家です。
kare wa kanari no benkyouka desu.
He’s quite the studier. (meaning: he studies a lot)
2. Say 特に (toku ni) when you mean 特に
toku ni has a different meaning from totemo: it means “especially” or “particularly.” Many people are in the habit of saying totemo all the time for everything because it’s just so easy: stop. Totemo is overworked and tired. Let it rest and use toku ni when you mean “especially.”
この本はとても面白かった。
kono hon wa totemo omoshirokatta.
This book was very interesting.
この本は特に面白かった。
kono hon wa toku ni omoshirokatta.
This book was particularly interesting.
3. Use 非常に (hijou ni) for stronger emphasis
Totemo is a good worker but struggles to adequately convey the stronger meanings, so if you really want to emphasize something, hijou ni is your go-to word. For example…
東大に入ることがとても難しい。
toudai ni hairu koto ga totemo muzukashii.
It’s very difficult to get into Tokyo University. (= but you can if you work at it)
東大に入ることが非常に難しい。
toudai ni hairu koto ga hijou ni muzukashii.
It’s VERY difficult to get into Tokyo University. (= nearly impossible)
Hijou ni‘s kanji literally mean not (非) and everyday (常), so you could translate it as “unusually” or “abnormally.” But in reality the meaning has been blurred quite a bit; so suffice it to say that this word is just a stronger way to say “very.”
4. Say 本当に (hontou ni) when you mean 本当に
Hontou ni means “really”, as in… “in reality.” This is yet another word whose job all too often gets pushed onto poor old totemo. Balance out your vocabulary a little by using this word to show surprise or exceeded expectations, the same way we would do with “really” in English.
あの子ネコはとても小さい。
Ano koneko wa totemo chiisai.
That kitten is very small.
あの子ネコは本当に小さい。
Ano koneko wa hontou ni chiisai.
That kitten is really small.
5. Try casual Japanese equivalents
I almost decided against listing these words because foreigners often overuse these just as much as totemo, and I can almost guarantee that your Japanese professors/bosses would prefer you don’t use them. But hey, it’s the internet!
- すごく (sugoku) : “Extremely” (kanji: 凄く)
- チョー (cho-) : “Super-” (kanji: 超)
- めっちゃ (meccha) : “ridiculously” (this word comes from from 滅茶苦茶/mechakucha)
6. Try more advanced words
I wrote this article primarily with beginner to intermediate Japanese learners in mind, but if you’re looking for even more options or if you’re just an ambitious learner, here are some more words that you can jot down and try using instead of totemo. I’m not going to get into detailed explanations for them though as this simple blog post has gone on long enough already.
- 結構 (kekkou)
- 相当 (soutou)
- 随分 (zuibun)
- 極めて (kiwamete)
- とんでもない (tondemonai)
- 余計に (yokei ni)
- 余程 (yohodo/yoppodo)
- 前代未聞 (zendaimimon)
7. And if you’re in Nagoya…
…try out saying totemo in the local dialect, it’s “でら” (dera). Your Nagoyan friends will love love you for it. 
Just for the kanji lovers out there…
Totemo and kanari are always written using just plain old hiragana so if you’ve got kanji-phobia like many learners do, you don’t have to be afraid of these words.
But if you’ve got a kanji fetish (like me), or if you’re poring over some Edo-period literature, or if you’re going to be appearing on a Japanese kanji quiz show, you might be interested to know that totemo can be written as “迚も” and kanari as “可也.”
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23 Responses
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great article. thank you for pointing that out about my japanese! korekara, im gonna give totemo a break.
by: robaato, Nov 23rd at 6:38 am
I never thought about how often I use “totemo” until I read this, but you’re right! I do use it a lot. Thanks for the pointers on how to mix it up.
by: Gail Meadows, Nov 25th at 9:10 am
Great article, and one that highlights a really good point. When I was new to learning Japanese, I also overused とても practically to the point of no return. I think because it is sooooo overused, people believe it to be all-encompassing and extremely versatile, when in fact, it actually isn’t that descriptive.
For me, 本当に is one of those phrases that demands affirmation from the recipient, so I nearly always place ね at the end of a sentence in which 本当に has been employed, as its meaning is more about surprise than anything else.
by: Ryan Taylor, Nov 28th at 3:04 am
Glad everyone seems to be enjoying this article. I may do more with the same theme if I can think of some more over-used words.
@Ryan : good point on 本当に. And I actually just realized it would probably have been useful to include “truly” as a translation for it…
by: Lloyd Vincent, Nov 29th at 2:45 am
I almost never say とても, come to think of it, probably because it doesn’t roll off the tongue very well and is one of those words that tends to get in the way of the rest of what I’m saying. I started saying ほんま instead of 本当 after living in western Japan, as well.
by: toki, Dec 9th at 4:35 pm
any tips on kono, sono, asoko, kore,sore,etc?
by: Anonymous, Apr 21st at 10:42 pm
Kono, sono, ano – Kono is used to describe something that’s close to you, the speaker. Sono is physically close to the person you’re talking to, but not close you. Ano is far away from both you, and your partner. Koko, soko and asoko is the same but regarding places instead of objects.
by: Adam, Jul 14th at 11:33 pm
This article has been really helpful to me, thanks a bunch. I’ve referred to this page a lot!
by: ダビデ, Sep 4th at 4:10 pm
Learned a lot in there again ! Until today I was the exact type that use とても every now and then, and すごく when wanting a bit more of an emphasis… that’s past now, thanks a lot
Nevertheless, I think I can add another handy word that I just learned also : in some cases you might want to use まことに, which I believe you can use as often as you use ‘sincerely’ in English…
But not being a native English speaker either, I may be mistaken on how to use ‘sincerely’ in English also… Darn it
by: Armand, Nov 29th at 6:01 pm
I remember coming across this post a while back, glad I found it again! I am so sick of using とても in my orals and writing tasks. This will come in handy while I study for my last Japanese exams, thanks!
by: Caterine, Feb 14th at 8:13 am
Fantastic article! 特に面白かった。 This is my first time to this site (via a web search on “totemo”).
by: Forrest Shields, Aug 14th at 5:17 am
Another triumph! You’re still amazing.
by: blog, Aug 18th at 8:39 am
If you are in the Tsugaru area use “gappa.” It works the same way as kanari, and you will be very endeared.
by: Ryne, Sep 11th at 8:02 pm
I came across a sentence that said “kekkou taisetsu na koto datta ki ga suru.” Can I assume that the kekkou here is also something similar to totemo?
by: A, Dec 2nd at 9:39 am
I suppose I have been using totemo far too much!
I shall impress my pen-pal by expanding my vocabulary!
Thank you for the useful article!
by: Marcus, Dec 30th at 5:27 pm
Or if you`re in Okinawa try
“Dei~ji”
今日はデイージ暑いだね！
by: Jesse, Sep 9th at 5:33 pm
I lived and worked in Ōsaka for five years back in the early 90s. Currently I teach Japanese here in Montreal. Hey, that’s my life story in two sentences!
I’ve never had a problem with “totemo” — if you want an analogy, I learned to speak Japanese purely by actually listening and speaking, as opposed to hitting the books or taking classes. I guess that’s analogous to learning how to play an instrument by practicing alone to records and then actually putting the practice into action by playing in bands, as opposed to going to music school and learning to read.
So, I suppose I learned Japanese by “negative usage” — meaning, that if I didn’t actually hear an expression used very much by the people around me, I would tend not to use it myself, and the same with the opposite — if I heard an expression a lot, I would tend to use that instead of the “book-learning” equivalent.
As an example, I was very puzzled when Japanese people used “sugoi” as an adjective but didn’t change it to “sugoku,” which would be the “proper” way to say it. In other words, I’d hear “sugoi yasui” instead of “sugoku yasui” a LOT — and since that’s grammatically not correct, I would ask my friends why they didn’t use “sugoku” instead of “sugoi.” I mean, technically speaking, it’s just plain wrong. It would maybe have an equivalent in English (in certain circles) of using “hell of” as an adjective — maybe that’s just California slang, but lots of people used to use the expression as in, “That’s hell of cheap,” which of course, is so off-the-charts grammatically incorrect that it verges on absurdity.
But I simply did not hear “totemo” used a lot in Ōsaka, where I pretty much learned Japanese from scratch, with no school, classes or computers (this was before the Internet).
I’d hear “sugoi” a lot instead of “totemo” but I would also hear “sonna ni” a lot more than “kanari” — as in, “sonna ni takakunai” (not that expensive) instead of “kanari yasui” (fairly cheap). And when “kanari” normally should be used, I’d hear “kekko” used a lot more often. as in, “kekko yasui ya de,” (Ōsaka-ben for “pretty cheap, dude”) instead of “kanari.”
There are tons of ways to say “fairly,” “quite” or other modifying adjectives in that vein, but in my circles I would hear “sugoi” and “meccha” (with the little “tsu”) to express superlatives.
Thus, I think I must put my brain into it and really learn how to use words like “kanari” and “zuibun” instead of “sugoi” and “taihen” . . . I’m just a product of my education, after all, and most of that was from females and young people, and above all, my beloved Ōsaka-ben.
Maa, ii ka. Ore ni totte, motto yoku tsukau hyōgen no hō ga oboeyasui to omou’n yakedo sa . . .
by: nick robinson, Jan 6th at 8:51 pm
but i have in nagoya ,they say ( amari takakakunai
by: sihar, Mar 27th at 6:07 pm
Awesome! Thank you for this valuable lesson.
by: Vincent3, Apr 29th at 1:22 am
Excuse me, may I ask something.. what’s the different totemo, taihen and hijyou ni? Thankyou
by: ayudia kartini, Sep 19th at 9:55 pm
Thanks for this great post! I’m definitely going to integrate these words into my vocabulary.
by: Katie, Dec 4th at 2:56 pm
Don’t forget the Kumamoto area! ぎゃん (gyan).
by: Kerensa, Dec 4th at 4:56 pm
Don’t forget なかなか / nakanaka! It has the same meaning as “pretty” when we use it to mean “quite”.
“なかなかいい” = Pretty good
“なかなかおいしい” = Pretty tasty
I got into the habit of using kanari and my teacher told me it sounds a bit formal, and in casual situations it’s better to use nakanaka.
by: Jason, Dec 18th at 9:24 am