彼が本を読むことはまずない。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

He seldom, if ever, reads a book.

Can I use まず the same way I would use めった?

#2

@ericaw
You can replace まず with めったに or 滅多に.

彼が本を読むことはまずない can mean either

  1. Current description based on his past behavior: “he haven’t read a book so often, so generally speaking, he seldom reads a book.”

  2. Future projection based on an assumption: “I am almost sure that he will not read the (particular) book.”

However, 滅多に is used only in the first case. And I probably interpret the original Japanese sentence with まずない as the second case if the sentence doesn’t have a whole context. So, my alternative translation from the given English sentence is:

彼は滅多に本を読まない。

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