What are some special ways to use よく besides “often” and “well”?


I’ve seen よく used in a variety of contexts outside of the basic “often” and
“well”.

> 「よくよくのことがないと実家には帰らない。」
>
> 「よく聞いたら試験は、明日だった。」
>
> 「よく言うよ！」

Just a few examples. What are some different ways it can be used and the
meanings/nuances they carry?




It has quite a lot of uses outside of "often" and "well".

In the form of 「よく食べる」 ~ "(They) eat a lot", it would translate to "much", "to
a considerable degree" etc. This may sometimes be easy to confuse with the
"often" and "frequently" definitions.

It can also be used (often in the form of「よくぞ」) when someone says/does
something that the speaker finds extremely welcome, as a way to "praise them"
for what they've done. E.g. 「よく来たね」 ~ "It's nice of you to come" or more
literally "You did well to come (here)". Similarly「よくぞ言ってくれた」 ~ " _Finally_
someone came out and said it." (liberal TL).

Somewhat similarly, in the form of「よくここへ来れた」 it may be used to denote that
someone has achieved something impressive. In this example it could translate
to something like "I'm impressed that you managed to come here" or more
liberally "Well done; coming here is no small feat."

In「よく言うよ！」, corresponding to "You're one to talk!", it's used in the backwards
sense compared to the above, essentially as a form of sarcasm. Here you could
think of it as "You have some nerve (doing x)", although in the よく form it's
mostly used in a more lighthearted sense (as a kind of tsukkomi). On the other
hand,「よくも」is what someone might say when you're strongly critical of something
another person has done.「よくも俺の女に手ェ出したなァ」 ~ "You've got some guts, laying your
hands on my woman" (etc), 「よくもあの人をだましたわね！」would be like "How dare you deceive
him!".「よくもまあ」 is used similarly, although here the speaker would tend to be
less agitated.

Other forms:

「良{よ}くも悪{わる}くも」would denote "for better or worse", "in both the good way and
the bad way", "no matter if it's good or if it's bad"
etc.「良くも悪くも正義感の強い男だ」would mean "For better or worse, he is a man with a strong
sense of justice."

「よくよく」is often just an empathetic version of 「よく」, but how you would interpret
it depends on the context. 「よくよくのことがないと実家には帰らない」 would correspond to something
to the effect of "They (he/she/etc) won't go visit (go/return to) their
parents' home unless they really have to", where「よくよくのこと」refers to something
that leaves a person no choice but to act (in some specific way). This is
synonymous with「よっぽどのこと」.「よくよくの愚か者」would on the other hand denote "(He's) a
real fool"; here the「よくよく」would simply be used for emphasis and again be
synonymous with「よっぽど」.

「よくてよ」would be a very specific use case meaning "It's fine to (x)" or "It's
better to (x)". E.g. 「行かないほうがよくてよ」would translate to something like "It's
better if you don't go". This is just a high class lady -ish way to
say「いい（よ）」. Another similar one is「よろしくてよ」, and this again makes me imagine
the speaker to be a high class female person.

Another very specific use case would be 「能{よ}く」, which means "(to be) able to"
(although in Japanese I've also seen it interpreted in the sense of "to be
highly capable of (achieving something)"). This is a kun-yomi for「能」and in
this sense unrelated to よく as it is normally used in Japanese. One context
where you might see this used is as part of the (originally Chinese) proverb
「[柔能く剛を制す](http://kotowaza-allguide.com/si/jyuuyokugouseisu.html)」 , lit. "The
soft can defeat the hard", which expresses the idea that a weak person can
best a stronger opponent in battle (or that a seemingly "soft" approach to a
problem may at times be more effective than an uncompromising one, etc). You
could also see this used as a kun-yomi for「能」 ("to be able to") used to
convert [漢文](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%BC%A2%E6%96%87-49578) to a
relatively readable Japanese version.

As a side note, this よく should not be confused with 「欲{よく}」, which means
"desire".

