別に
Not particularly
別に＋ない
別に＋ Negative form verb has meanings ranging from “Not in particular”, “Not really”, “not worth mentioning”, “not that much” and “it’s not like it’s…”.
That’s kind of a lot, but the gist is that 別に downplays the degree of something.
別に are done, but incidentally.
Examples
- 別に害はない – It’s not really harmful
- 別に好きじゃない – I don’t particularly like it. (Don’t hate it, don’t like it)
- 別に飲まない – I don’t drink it in particular.
- 別に勉強していない – I’m not really studying.
- 彼は別に嫌いなわけじゃないが、好きじゃない。- I don’t particularly hate him, but I don’t like him.
- チョコは好きですか？別に好きじゃない。 – Do you like chocolate? Not particularly.
- 別に苦くないよ – Its not really bitter/It’s not like its bitter.
別にいい
別にいい is a common phrase you’ll probably hear. It means that something is ok (or not particularly bad). In short, the speaker doesn’t mind or think that it will matter.
- これ食べていい？
別にいいよ – Yeah its ok./doesn’t matter to me/Yeah don’t worry.
別に
Sometimes, you might hear 別に by itself. There are 2 options:
別に(いい） – Nevermind — Don’t worry about it. I don’t care about it.
別に(ない）- ない verb implied from conversation and dropped.
あまり and 別に
あまり (ない） and 別に (ない）ar similar, but 別に has a nuance of “not worth talking about“
あまり explicitly states “not much“, i.e. some, but not a lot.
別に leaves it vague. Its probably not a lot, but somewhat implies a “normal” degree of the verb/adjective.
別に kind of feels like it might be done, but not done for the sake of itself, just incidentally.
(Not especially)