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一概に

いちがいに

unconditionally, sweepingly, across the board (with a negative)

By Nihongo PathUpdated

Examples

  1. 田舎の生活が不便だとは一概には言えない。

    いなかのせいかつがふべんだとはいちがいにはいえない。

    You cannot say sweepingly that life in the countryside is inconvenient.

  2. どちらが良いか、一概に決められない。

    どちらがよいか、いちがいにきめられない。

    Which is better cannot be decided in general terms.

  3. 若者は本を読まないと一概に言うのは間違いだ。

    わかものはほんをよまないといちがいにいうのはまちがいだ。

    It is wrong to generalize that young people do not read books.

Common patterns

一概に〜とは言えない
cannot say categorically that ~
一概には言えない
it depends
一概に決められない
cannot be decided in general

Memory tip

一 (one) + 概 (general): treating everything as one. Almost always followed by 言えない.

Kanji in this word

Quick check

1 / 2Multiple choiceDifficulty 4 of 5

What does 一概に mean?