めったにない
Rarely Happens
めったに + Negative Form Verb
めったに＋ない is another one of those negative form adverbs. It means “not very much” or “rarely”.
It is a lower degree of frequency than あまり, more on par with まれに.
Don’t get confused with the ない ending here, it should be considered part of めった。
Examples
- こんなにいいことはめったに起こらない – Something as good as this rarely occurs.
- 彼はめったに頑張らない – He rarely tries.
- サメはめったに人を襲わない – Sharks rarely attack humans
- アレを倒す人はめったに存在しない – A person who could defeat that rarely exists.
- あの果物は珍しいので、めったに食べません。- That fruit is rare, so it is rarely eaten.
めったに vs まれに
めったに and まれに both express rarely, but differ in that めったに must use negatives to express it.
In a sense, めったに expresses the opposite and then negatives it (see below).
In my experience まれに is more common.
However, if you want to stress a negative, such as not studying, not existing, etc., めったに is a bit more appropriate since it lets you use the negative form.
- まれに生まれる – Rarely born
- めったに生まれない – “Not born a lot”/”Commonly not born”-> Rarely born.
Origin
You probably guessed based on the negative form verb that めった itself doesn’t mean rarely, but instead means the opposite. めった is a な adjective meaning “common”, “all the time”, or “a lot”.
This means that めったにない literally means something like “Not a lot”, or “Not common at all”.
If it seems weird to you that “Common” + Not = rare, just remember that we do the same in English with “Not a lot”.
Although めった is a な adjective, in practice its never used as a な adjective with this meaning.
In the cases I can remember hearing it used as a な adjective, it has had a different meaning of “Reckless” or “Stupid” and even then its pretty rare. You might even say..
「めったな」はめったに聞かない