以上に いじょうに - Grammar Discussion

more than
no less than

Structure

  • Verb + 以上に
  • Noun + 以上に
  • なAdj + 以上に
  • いAdj + 以上に
  • 以上 の・Noun

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A little embarrassed to be confused by a na adjective at this point but could someone explain the bolded part to me?

あの人は、作者以上に 好なんじゃないかと思えるほどあの本が好きでたまらない

んじゃないか (= の では ない か) is a tag question similar to “isn’t it?”.

Maggie Sensei has examples, look under “To use んじゃない(=njanai) in an affirmative sentence.”

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Thank you so much! I kept thinking “isn’t it just 好きじゃない” so I was really thrown off by the なん.

This actually stems from my persistent weakness in using ん because I keep brushing it off as “unnecessary” to convey my message. Zzzz.

For the given example sentence

かれおもった以上いじょう人生じんせいがある
He has more of a life than I thought.

does というより also work, or does that have a difference nuance to it?

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Hey @wrt7MameLZE33wlmpCAV, sorry for the late reply !

というより would not work here. Although というより and 以上に can be translated as ‘more of a… than a…’, というより has the nuance of ‘rather than saying…’ and used when comparing something. 以上に has the nuance of ‘more than’, as in ‘more than or equal to’. So, replacing it would make both the Japanese and the English sentence sound unnatural.

彼は思ったというより人生がある。
Rather than saying that he thought, he has a life.

I hope that clears it up!