nattou wa mitame hodo tabenikuku nai to haha ga itte imashita.

My mother said natto is not as hard to eat as it looks.

Breakdown of nattou wa mitame hodo tabenikuku nai to haha ga itte imashita.

• は: topic particle
• 食たべる: to eat
• が: subject particle
• 母はは: mother

Questions & Answers about nattou wa mitame hodo tabenikuku nai to haha ga itte imashita.

What does ほど mean in 見た目ほど〜ない?

In this pattern, ほど means to the extent that or as much as.

So 見た目ほど食べにくくない means:

• not as hard to eat as its appearance suggests
• literally, it is not hard to eat to the extent of its appearance

A very common pattern is:

• A は B ほど〜ない = A is not as ~ as B

Here, the comparison is a little compressed:

• 見た目ほど = as much as its appearance / as much as it looks

So the sentence is comparing how natto looks with how difficult it actually is to eat.

Why is 見た目 used here, and what exactly does it mean?

見た目 means appearance, how something looks, or outward look.

In this sentence, it refers to the visual impression natto gives. Natto often looks strange or unappetizing to people who are not used to it, so 見た目ほど implies:

• compared with how it looks
• judging from its appearance

It is a noun, so 見た目ほど is literally to the degree of its appearance.

What does 食べにくい mean? Is it the same as 食べられない?