adverbial N4 common casualpolitewritten

なかなか〜ない — not easily ~

なかなか〜ない・なかなかない

Meaning

not easily / just won't ~ — something expected fails to happen despite time or effort

The feeling is impatience: you are waiting for or working toward something that stubbornly refuses to happen. It is not a flat 'doesn't' — it implies the result is overdue.

Key sentence

バスがなかなか来こない。

The bus just won't come.

Formation

Attaches to	Form	Example
Negative predicate	なかなか + …ない	なかなか覚おぼえられない

Examples

漢字かんじがなかなか覚おぼえられない。

I just can't seem to memorize kanji.

予約よやくがなかなか取とれなかった。

I had real trouble getting a reservation.

子こどもがなかなか寝ねてくれない。

My kid just won't go to sleep.

Easily confused with

全然〜ない全然〜ない = a flat 'not at all'; なかなか〜ない = 'not easily / not yet,' implying you expect it to happen eventually and are frustrated it hasn't.

Notes

Without a negative, positive なかなか means 'quite / considerably' (なかなかいい = 'pretty good') — a separate, almost opposite nuance.

See なかなか〜ない in real sentences

Jengo shows なかなか〜ない the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled from published Japanese grammar references.

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