English translation:
nothing better than
there’s nothing like
limited to
Structure:
Verb + に限る
Verb[ ない ] + に限る
Noun + に限る
Can someone give me another way to think of this grammar point? When I look at the translations “nothing better than” and “limited to”, they have very different feelings. One is the pinnacle of achievement and the other is the ultimate restriction. I don’t understand how they both apply.
Even if I take the first example and translate both ways, they have different feelings.
ダイエットをしたいなら、運動をするに限る。
“There is nothing better than exercise when it comes to losing weight.”
“You’re limited to exercise when it comes to losing weight.”
I think that the only meaning really is “nothing is better than ~” indicating that’s the limit of the possible achievable described quality. Think of it as the “upper limit” of things to describe how good something is, but not a limit in a literal sense.
Using your example as reference:
ダイエットをしたいなら、運動をするに限る。
“There is nothing better than exercise when it comes to losing weight.” is the right translation.
“You’re limited to exercise when it comes to losing weight.” Would be something more like ダイエットには運動するしかないんだ。
Hope this helps!
1 Like
Ah. It just clicked. It’s saying that this is the upper end of the scale — you can’t get anything more than that. 
1 Like
Could anyone give an example sentence with Verb[ない] for this point?
would it mean ‘there’s nothing better than not’?
1 Like
噂話が好きな人とは関わらないに限る。
Only don’t get involved with people who like to gossip.
The basic meaning stays the same, hope this helps!
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。
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!
2 Likes
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?