甘くはない

もう終わる これで勝てる？ 甘くはない わかってる
Why 甘く? I understand it is the adverb form, but can't see what it means here. In English, this could mean ''softly'' ''sweetly'' or ''simply'' in terms of something like 甘く見る (obviously I try to understand it as one Japanese word rather than three English ones).

I think it could be short for something like 甘くすることはない so like, ''there is nothing that will be done simply'' (Nothing is simple).

Is it that or something else?

よろしくお願いします

Haven't you learned the negative form of i-adjectives, e.g., 高くない, 短くない or 遠くない? ~くはない is sometimes almost the same as just ~くない, but often suggests "it's not~ but ...". Thus, 甘くはない means "(the thing/situation) is not easy (but hard, for instance)".

Toritoribe said:

Haven't you learned the negative form of i-adjectives, e.g., 高くない, 短くない or 遠くない? ~くはない is sometimes almost the same as just ~くない, but often suggests "it's not~ but ...". Thus, 甘くはない means "(the thing/situation) is not easy (but hard, for instance)".

Click to expand...

Oh. Yes, I have. Those types of negatives were one of the first things I learnt actually. But I don't think I have seen them like that before...I tried to find information online about it just now but couldn't either...

Well thanks again Toritoribe. I couldn't have known that. Glad I posted, thanks