Practice JLPT
IntermediateJLPT N3 Grammar

なかなか

Not easily / hardly

Romaji: nakanaka

Meaning & usage

Quite; fairly; considerably; (not) easily; pretty; (not) readily | An adverb used to indicate the speaker's feelings that something is impressive or his annoyance at slowness or difficulty in achieving something.

Example sentences 15

  1. あのピアニストはモーツァルトをなかなかうまく弾く。

    That pianist plays Mozart quite well.

  2. あの人はどんなに説明しても、僕の言うことがなかなか分からないようだ。

    No matter how hard I try to explain, he doesn't seem to understand me easily.

  3. あの男は仕事がなかなか出来るねえ。

    That guy does his job quite well, doesn't he?

  4. この大学の学生はなかなかよく出来る。

    The students at this college are pretty good.

  5. この庭園はなかなか綺麗ですね。

    This garden is quite beautiful, isn't it?

  6. この数学の問題はなかなか難しそうだ。

    This math problem looks quite difficult, doesn't it?

  7. この生け花はなかなか見事に生けてある。

    This flower arrangement is done quite nicely.

  8. テニスは毎日練習しているのに、なかなか上手にならないんです。

    I am practicing tennis every day, but I cannot become good at it readily.

  9. ブラウンさんは日本語がなかなか上手ですね。

    {Mr. Brown is / Mr. Brown, you are} remarkably good at Japanese.

  10. 今年は桜の花がなかなか咲きません。

    It will be a long time before the cherry blossoms are out this year. (literally: This year the cherry blossoms do not bloom easily.)

  11. 君はなかなかコンピュータに強いそうじゃないか。

    I heard that you are quite good with computers.

  12. 山田部長の奥さんはなかなか（の）美人だ。

    The wife of our departmental chief Yamada is quite a beauty.

  13. 河豚ふぐは怖くて、なかなか食べられないんだ。

    I am scared of blowfish (pufferfish) and cannot eat it easily.

  14. 約束の時間になっても友達がなかなか来なかったので家に帰ってしまった。

    The meeting time long passed, but my friend didn't show up for a long time, so I went home.

  15. 風邪がなかなか治らないので、困っているんです。

    I'm having a difficult time, because my cold won't go away easily.

All N3 grammar