What's the difference between 「うまく」, 「上手に」 and 「よく」?


What's the difference between 「うまく」, 「上手に」 and 「よく」, all seemingly meaning
"well" in English?

Someone said that I should use 「よく」 rather than 「うまく」 in the following
sentence. Can anyone explain why?

> この文の意味は ~~うまく~~ **よく** 分からなかった。

I'd really like to know the difference between the 3 words, or maybe just some
examples of where one is more suitable than another if possible.

**Edit:** Doing some digging through many e-mails, it turns out it wasn't
「うまく」 vs 「上手に」 at all as in the original question, but I think the other
person clearly preferred 「上手」 over 「うまい」:

> ～さんのクラフトは ~~うまそう~~ **上手** 。




> What's the difference between 「うまく」, 「上手に」 and 「よく」, all seemingly meaning
> "well" in English?

Quite roughly: 上手に means "skilfully." You don't skilfully understand a
sentence, so that's why you don't say *`この文の意味はうまく分からなかった`.

うまく is quite informal in meaning "well" with a "skilfully" nuance. You use it
for qualifying how you threw that bowling ball to do a strike, or how your
sister sang at the karaoke.

よく is a formal or neutral way to say "well" as in "properly."

よく分かりましたか？




> What's the difference between 「うまく」, 「上手に」 and 「よく」, all seemingly meaning
> "well" in English?

Quite roughly: 上手に means "skilfully." You don't skilfully understand a
sentence, so that's why you don't say *`この文の意味はうまく分からなかった`.

うまく is quite informal in meaning "well" with a "skilfully" nuance. You use it
for qualifying how you threw that bowling ball to do a strike, or how your
sister sang at the karaoke.

よく is a formal or neutral way to say "well" as in "properly."

よく分かりましたか？

