student asking question

Would the sentence mean the same if I say "It's just not" instead of "It's not just"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good question! No, the sentence would not mean the same thing if you "said it's just not" instead of "it's not just". In the sentence "it's not just", the word "just" means "only", and this sentence indicates that it's not only activated by food. If you were to instead say "it's just not", "just" would indicate emphasis on the word "not", and this sentence would imply that it really isn't activated by food, which is not what the original sentence conveys. Although the word "just" is used as an adverb in both situations, the placement of "just" can greatly affect the meaning of the sentence.

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