Chotto: A Little Word with a Lot of Ambiguity www.tofugu.com

ちょっと is one of the more useful and commonly used words in the Japanese language. Even if you're very new to Japanese, it's pretty likely you've come across ちょっと before, because it's short, simple, and easy to say.

But not all ちょっとs are alike. For example, two of ちょっと's meanings, "little" and "very," contradict one another.

If I combine ちょっと with a word like 難しい, meaning "difficult," it can mean either "a little difficult" or "very difficult."

That's a pretty significant change, don't you think?