Ambiguity with あまり


I was thinking of giving an answer to [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/57636/is-%E3%82%88%E3%81%8F%E3%81%98%E3%82%83%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84-correct-
for-not-often), but then I remembered that my Japanese is rubbish.

I was going to give an example:

> ケーキはあまり食べない

Then I started having doubts about whether this would mean "I don't often eat
cake" or "I don't eat much cake", i.e. "When I eat cake, I only eat a small
slice".

Without context, can the sentence have both of these interpretations?




Yes. We judge it by context as you knew. If you want to make sure that you
mean "I only eat a small slice", you can say "ケーキは少ししか食べない".

I interpret ケーキはあまり食べない as "I don't often eat cake", because I feel it says
"one's preference" or "custom".

For example, あまり旅行しない would mean "I don't often go on a trip.", 今日はあまり酒を飲まなかった
would mean "I didn't drink much today" rather than "I didn't often drink
today".




Yes. We judge it by context as you knew. If you want to make sure that you
mean "I only eat a small slice", you can say "ケーキは少ししか食べない".

I interpret ケーキはあまり食べない as "I don't often eat cake", because I feel it says
"one's preference" or "custom".

For example, あまり旅行しない would mean "I don't often go on a trip.", 今日はあまり酒を飲まなかった
would mean "I didn't drink much today" rather than "I didn't often drink
today".

