6

This sentence is from Doraemon:

そんなのめずらしくもないよ.

I think it means "It is not that rare/uncommon". But I don't understand the use of く も here. Should it be interpreted as めずらしく + も?

  1. Why did they use めずらしく here? I thought i-adjective + く = adverb while it should be noun in this case.
  2. Why did they use も instead of は? Thanks
Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

そんなのめずらしくもないよ。
Something like that is not really rare.

It's めずらしく + も + ない. めずらしく is the ku-form (continuative-form) of めずらしい.

This も is like "well", "(not) quite", or "(not) really". This type of も appears in many sentences, and it essentially makes the sentence sound milder and more reserved. For example, そうではない ("That's not correct") can sound harsh, but そうでもない ("That's not quite correct") sounds milder.

Related:

Improve this answer
5
  • I'm afraid that 'quite' doesn't quite work in the OPs example sentence. 'really' or 'particularly' would be better. :-)
    – user3856370
    Commented Feb 22, 2019 at 15:35
  • @user3856370 Thank you, edited.
    – naruto
    Commented Feb 22, 2019 at 15:44
  • This still leaves the grammatical question of why it uses a continuative form instead of a noun (or other nominalizer), like めずらしいのもない. Looking at simpler examples, it's easy to internalize a rule that particles are preceded by nouns, or at least nominals, and that doesn't seem to hold up. (Especially if one has been taught to analyze でも as a single particle.)
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Sep 27, 2023 at 4:01
  • @KarlKnechtel Since 珍しくはない is correct, so is 珍しくもない (both も and は are categorized as 副助詞, which can replace が and を).
    – naruto
    Commented Sep 27, 2023 at 4:27
  • Ah, I suppose it relates to the existence of things like には, then. - Wait, I think I already knew this... ?
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Sep 27, 2023 at 5:41

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .