I have learnt that these are both ways to say "let alone, all the more.. etc" Are these two grammatical structures interchangeable, or meant to be used together? Many thanks in advance.
1 Answer
They are basically interchangeable and can be used together, in both positive and negative contexts. You need to change the sentence structure around to switch between them, though. Here's a negative example:
- 風{かぜ}がないので、なおさら暑く{あつく}感じる{かんじる}。
- 暑い。ましてや風がないとなるとなおさら暑い。
- 暑い。ましてや風がないとなると汗{あせ}が止まらない{とまらない}。
- 暑い。風がないとなると、なおさら汗が止まらない。
- It feels even hotter because of the lack of wind.(sentence from goo dictionary, which in turn gets its entries from the dictionary Daijisen Digital)
- It's hot; all the worse that there's no wind.
- It's hot. Compounded by the lack of wind, I'm dripping sweat.
- It's hot. Compounded by the lack of wind, I'm dripping sweat.
A subtlety I should point out between 3 and 4 is that the part immediately proceeding the なおさら/ましてや receives the most emphasis by the speaker. The former is making a bigger complaint about the lack of wind, and the latter is more bothered by the pool of sweat (s)he's creating. The latter also implies that the speaker was already sweating before the line, and is emphasizing that (s)he's still sweating, perhaps even worse now; a similar effect to the word "exacerbate" (at least for negative situations). I lost that part in translation.
Oh yeah, and here's the kanji if you ever need it. なおさら：尚更、ましてや：増してや（況してや）
