Translation of すべて as "none of"


Here's a sentence I said to a friend today:

「すべての授業{じゅぎょう}を選{えら}びません。」

I wanted to say "I don't choose all my courses."

However, my friend understood my sentence as "I choose none of my course. / I
don't choose any course at all.", and suggested me to say
「すべての授業{じゅぎょう}を選{えら}ぶわけではありません。」instead.

jisho.org doesn't mention this use for すべて. Is there a more general "rule" I
should know about regarding this case, so as to avoid similar
misunderstandings?




すべて, just like 'all', means 100%, or conversely 'none'.

The issues before you are between logical construction in Japanese and non-
logical (implied context) construction in the English phrase.

The English phrase 'I don't choose all my courses' _could_ just as well
logically mean that you choose none of your courses (Don't choose any), but
normally there is an underlying omitted context. Namely, 'but I do choose
some/most of them.'

If you want to make the English sentence logically correspond to the implied
meaning, you would need to say something like 'I am not allowed to choose
every single course', or 'It's not like I can choose all of my courses'.

In Japanese, the underlying omitted context is not there. You are literally
saying 'I choose none (not a one) of my classes'. This is why your friend
suggested that you add a modifier.

「すべての授業を選びません。」= （授業の100％） 選ばない。[(100% of classes) I do not choose.]

「すべての授業を選ぶわけではありません。」= （授業の100％）≠ 選ぶ [(100% of classes) ≠ I choose.]




すべて, just like 'all', means 100%, or conversely 'none'.

The issues before you are between logical construction in Japanese and non-
logical (implied context) construction in the English phrase.

The English phrase 'I don't choose all my courses' _could_ just as well
logically mean that you choose none of your courses (Don't choose any), but
normally there is an underlying omitted context. Namely, 'but I do choose
some/most of them.'

If you want to make the English sentence logically correspond to the implied
meaning, you would need to say something like 'I am not allowed to choose
every single course', or 'It's not like I can choose all of my courses'.

In Japanese, the underlying omitted context is not there. You are literally
saying 'I choose none (not a one) of my classes'. This is why your friend
suggested that you add a modifier.

「すべての授業を選びません。」= （授業の100％） 選ばない。[(100% of classes) I do not choose.]

「すべての授業を選ぶわけではありません。」= （授業の100％）≠ 選ぶ [(100% of classes) ≠ I choose.]

