わたしがあなたを恐れないと同じように、あなたももうわたしを恐れるには_________。
I found this sentence on another website. The answer is およばない。What would be wrong with あたらない?
Was あたらない one of the possible options for this question or is this only your suggestion?
To me あたる carries the meaning of a direct contact. Literally a hit.
On the other hand およぶ feels like it’s almost there. Literally reaching.
In your sentence およばない feels more natural to me, because it conveys that something is not worth fearing any more (even though it was in the past, maybe). It doesn’t reach fear. I don’t know whether あたらない is correct or not here, but it definitely feels off to me.
If anything, 当たる in this case is more like “to correspond to…”, or “to be unnecessary”, rather than the “to hit” meaning. And 及ぶ is “to compare to…” or “to require to do…”. Obviously, most of these are in their positive form, as opposed to the negative form as shown in the example above, so take that into account.
At least that’s the feeling I get from these grammar points. However, I couldn’t tell you exactly why one is better than the other in this case.
I just spoke to a native speaker about this as I also couldn’t think of a good reason based on my current understanding. Naturally at first they could say which was better not why. On being pushed for a reason they said that with feelings にはおよばない feels like a collocation. On being pushed for a reason why it feels that way they said that with およばない it feels like something is a matter of degree or extent (i.e., there is no need to be that scared, which is to say you shouldn’t be scared at all) but with あたらない it feels like the thing is something fixed or discrete and not a matter of range. If you think about what is literally being said then it makes some sense.
3 Likes
You usually can deduce more fine tuned meanings from a more general meaning, as is in this case. What @CursedKitsune has said confirmed that my gut feeling was right, but I’m a terrible teacher. I just can’t stop myself from trying to answer a question like that.
3 Likes
Your intuition was basically bang on but it’s just kinda a hard idea to explain.
3 Likes
You were right! 
1 Like