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大雪｛おおゆき｝によって、電車｛でんしゃ｝は３時間｛じかん｝以上｛いじょう｝も遅れました｛おくれました｝。

彼女｛かのじょ｝が怒る｛おこる｝のも当然｛とうぜん｝だ。

I read a few grammar explanations that suggested in these contexts も serves as an “exclamation” marker, but I’m confused about these usages of も. Could you explain this usage of も? Could も be replaced by another particle in these cases, and if so, how would the meanings change?

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー What is the difference in nuance between the following sentences? Are either more common than the other? Are there certain contexts you would use one over the other?

私｛わたし｝は犬｛いぬ｝も猫｛ねこ｝も好き｛すき｝です。

私は犬と猫が好きです。

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I believe it'd be more accurate to conceptualize も as an emphasis marker than as an exclamation. For instance, I'd translate the two sentences in your last example as

I like both dogs and cats.

and

I like dogs and cats.

respectively.

彼女が怒るのも当然だ。

The も here isn't an exclamation. It's being used to add the nuance of "in addition to whatever other thing was 当然."

大雪によって、電車は３時間以上も遅れました

Similarly, here it's being used to indicate that the speaker perceives this as having been a long time. If they wanted to highlight that they didn't believe three hours to be that long they'd use しか+neg verb.

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  • Thank you for the answer! I have a few follow up questions about “彼女が怒るのも当然だ”. If the も is functioning as “also/and” here, does that mean the も could be replaced with は and the sentence still make grammatical sense? If that’s true, does that mean there are common situations in which は can follow が, or does this highlight another unique feature of も (that it commonly follows が? Or, is the sentence flipped and 怒るのも彼女が当然だ / 怒るのは彼女が当然だ follows the natural word order?
    – jdkrensel
    May 7, 2018 at 1:37
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    Yep, it'd be grammatically correct. There's no rule against は following が, though the reason for this is because が is often used in qualifying clauses preceding a noun (in this case 怒るの). Neither of the last two sentences sound natural because "彼女が当然" doesn't really make sense following "怒るのは/も."
    – vel
    May 8, 2018 at 18:50

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