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What is the difference between 決して～ない and まったく～ない?

Rehan Khan
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There's definitely an overlap in the "completely/absolute" domain between 決して...ない and まったく...ない

If we want to split them apart, then Chocolate has a good pair of sentences to help illustrate the difference:

「決して忘れません」

= definitely don't forget.

決して usually relates to volition or decisional completeness / finality.

Or the opposite of not being committed to remembering.

Command-related usage is quite common for 決して so it also has a kind of 必ず sense.

「全くわかりません」

=I don't understand at all

Or we could say there's nothing in the contents I understand (the opposite of understanding all of the contents).

まったく relates to completeness of things.

A further signal other than looking at usage that tells us 決して is more formal is that 決して depends on the 音読み of 決　whereas まったく when written in kanji uses one of the 訓読み of 全.

virmaior
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They basically mean the same thing, except the latter is more informal.

Notte Stellata
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    でも・・「全くわかりません」"I don't understand at all",「決して忘れません」"I'll never forget" は、「決してわかりません」「全く忘れません」には言い換えられないですよね・・・ – Chocolate Jun 01 '18 at 04:04
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    Hmm, I also thought they mean the same thing, but @Chocolate is right, those are not interchangeable. Maybe contrasting the same verb with those two forms might help think through the subtle difference, like 「決して言わない」 vs 「全く言わない」 – Kohsuke Kawaguchi Jun 01 '18 at 05:23
  • there's also 一切...ない – Igor Skochinsky Jun 01 '18 at 08:40