Grammar Info

N3 Lesson 2: 7/22

程(ほど)～ないIs not as…as, Isn't... like..., Not to the extent of...

Structure

Verb + ほど + Verb［ない］(1)
Noun + ほど + Verb［ない］(1)

(1) ［い］Adjective［ない］、［な］Adjective + ではない、［な］Adjective + じゃない

Details

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About ほど～ない

Another expression that uses the noun ほど 'an extent' in Japanese, is ほど～ない. In the (A) part of a sentence, an extent will be highlighted, before the (B) part of the sentence will use ない to negate that extent, saying that it has not been reached. This phrase can be translated as 'it isn't like (A)', 'it's not to the point of (A)'. Literally it means 'if (A) is the extent, then (B) is not true'.

ほど will regularly be used after a verb or noun, while ない is more likely to be used after a verb, い-Adjective, or な-Adjective (as it is describing something about ほど).

While this grammar point may be used for expressing that an extent has not been reached, it is also frequently used for making comparisons between two things. In these cases, it states that 'the example/limit of (A) is something that cannot be reached/repeated by (B)'. This is similar to '(B) is not as ~ as (A)' in English.

Examples

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    君(きみ)の母(はは)程(ほど)優(やさ)しい人(ひと)はいない。

    There isn't anyone as nice as your mom.

    待(ま)って！あなたほど速(はや)く走(はし)れないんだ！

    Wait! I can't run as fast as you!

    タイタニック程(ほど)感動(かんどう)する映画(えいが)はないわ。

    There is no movie as touching as 'Titanic'.

    思(おも)っていた程(ほど)大変(たいへん)な仕事(しごと)ではなかった。

    The job was not as rough as I thought it would be.

    宇宙(うちゅう)では誰(だれ)もがフリゾ程(ほど)強(つよ)くなかった。

    There was no-one as strong as Frizo in the universe.

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ほど～ない – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (6 in total)

  • Daru

    Daru

    地図形式が持つ歪みから、ロシアは世界地図上に描かれているほどほど大きくない。

    I understand how the grammar point of this sentence is being used here, but I’m having a hard time making sense of the “持つ歪みから” at the start .

    Probably working with incomplete information right now, but wouldn’t something like 「歪み持ちだから」read better/be more natural? Specially considering 歪み is a noun and would need だ for から.

    EDIT:
    So I dug a bit deeper.

    • My proposal isn’t actually more natural, the meaning changes to something like “it’s full of distortions”, rather than “it can have distortions”
    • から is being used not as a “because”, but “based on”

    すまん！ Leaving my confusion for everyone to see regardless.

  • Daru

    Daru

    Who was the ding-dong that posted this? Oh wait, it was me before working in Bunpro.

  • wct

    wct

    I have a question (below), but first, an observation:

    So, the explanation section for this (and many others besides) have been updated, and it is soooo much more complete and instructive! I’m loving BunPro more and more every day! Thanks to everyone involved in these new explanations!

    Oh, and I guess one suggestion might be to somehow update these grammar-point-specific forum posts so that they reflect the new explanation sections? Currently, the OP has the old explanation which is much shorter and less complete. I think this is somewhat important, in the sense that if BP users are to discuss the grammar point, it doesn’t do much good if everyone reading the thread has to open up the grammar point in a separate tab and flip back and forth to reference the text of the explanation section.

    Perhaps this could be maintained in an automated way, such that some forum bot automatically updates the grammar point posts whenever the source-grammar-point is signif...

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