に限(かぎ)るNothing better than, There's nothing like, Limited to

Most Recent Replies (8 in total)

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  shootoff

  Hey, can someone explain the difference between に限る and one of the aspects of 何より? I can’t feel any difference there.
  Here are examples:

  例１： 夏はビールに限る。｜ 夏はビール何より。
  例２： 作文に上達するには日本語で日記を付けるに限る。｜ 作文に上達するには日本語で日記を付ける何よりです。

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  Fuga

  Hey @shootoff ! に限るand 何より both have a similar translation, but the rules on how you can use them is different so they cannot be use interchangeably. You can end a sentence with に限る, but you cannot with 何より since they need to be followed by a phrase when you want to use it with the nuance of ’ best, above all else, more than anything’.

  For example, 夏はビール何より。would sound like ‘Beer in the summer more than anything else’ in English and it sounds as unnatural in Japanese as it does in English.
  If you wanted to say something like ‘there is nothing I like more than drinking beer in the summer’, you would have to change the Japanese to 夏にビールを飲むのが何より好きです。

  I hope that helps you understand the difference!

• 

  shootoff

  It still seems a little bit strange.
  On Bunpro there is another IMO similar example for 何より:

  らくさん：「あなたにもらった本、わたしの息子がとても気に入っています。」
  おのでらさん：「それは何よりです。」

  In this sense, 何より means “be glad” and it doesn’t need 嬉しい or something like that.
  Intuitively it is clear, because 何より means “more than anything”, then there’s some shade of relief or assertion of the best way to do something.

  So, why do we need to clarify this expression with a verb or adjective? In Japanese, there are many expressions that seem pretty short, but they can be understood as well because the main point is context. Isn’t this one of them?