Is めっちゃおいしいです casual or polite?

One expression I often hear from my intermediate students is めっちゃ.

Many seem to have picked it up from Japanese friends, anime, or social media.

めっちゃ is often translated as “very” in English. Other Japanese words, such as とても and 非常に（ひじょうに）, can also mean “very” — but they aren’t always interchangeable.

Compare:

(1) めっちゃおいしいです。

(2) とてもおいしいです。

(3) 非常においしいです。

All three sentences use the polite speech style because they end in です.

But they don’t have the same register.

Why?

Because register is not determined by sentence endings alone. Word choice matters too.

In (1), the speech style is polite, but めっちゃ is a casual word. You might use めっちゃおいしいです with a senior colleague you know well, or with an older person you have a friendly relationship with, such as someone in a class you take.

とても is relatively neutral and can be used in a much wider range of situations. For example, a teacher might say とてもおいしいです when talking with a student. It is also a safe choice when you are not sure how casual you can be.

非常に is the most formal of these three. It is generally used in more formal contexts and can sound overly formal in casual everyday conversation. For example, a judge evaluating a dish in a cooking competition might say 非常においしいです.

So even though めっちゃ, とても, and 非常に can all be translated as “very,” choosing between them depends on the situation and your relationship with the listener.

Beginner learners often focus on the difference between casual and polite speech, such as 食べる and 食べます.

But as your Japanese advances, word choice becomes increasingly important too.

For intermediate and advanced learners, the question is often not just “Is this correct?” but “Does this fit the situation?”

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