4

I understand you can say something like

“彼は強くなるばかり”

To express this meaning but could you say

“もっともっと強くなっている“

Sorry if this seams like a stupid question I think I just heard it somewhere and I need clarification. To add to it are there any other ways to say more and more. (And by this I mean the -er and -er construction.)

Improve this question
3

I had a very hard time interpreting "もっと強くなっている" as "is getting stronger," (I had actually written we can't do so) but now it seems I can.
As I understand it, "もっともっと強くなっている"　means "is getting much much stronger than he was strong before."
So in a roundabout way it can be describing the same situation as "getting stronger and stronger" does. 「ますます」or 「どんどん」directly describes the intensiveness of increase in strength, on the contrary.

I am deeply sorry for my repeated editing.

EDIT
I had come up with a comparative clause that is likely incorrect("...than he was strong before"). What I meant was like "He is getting stronger, which will make him much more stronger than he is now."
Aside from that, what troubled me in the first place was when we say「[彼]{かれ}はもっと[強]{つよ}くなっている」we need implicit reference to a strength that we are comparing to. That makes it distinct from the sentence "He is getting stronger," for which the Japanese equivalent may simply be「彼は強くなっている」or 「彼はより強くなっている」if you prefer a verbatim translation.
And as I just learned from [広辞苑]{こうじえん}, this use of「より」as an adverb began in Meiji Era to translate comparative adjective in Indo-European languages(「ヨーロッパ語」in 広辞苑) into Japanese.

Improve this answer
4
  • and is ぐんぐん the same as どんどん? – I dunno what to call myself Jul 5 '18 at 2:16
  • Shouldn't naruto's answer be accepted, because it arrived at accurate conclusion faster? ぐんぐん : powerfulness – user30484 Jul 5 '18 at 3:41
  • This is what I tried to say in the comment above. ぐんぐん : powerfulness of some action. speediness of change. どんどん: unhalting and intense progress or some action. That's my rough translation. I consulted 広辞苑. Shouldn't naruto's answer be accepted, because it arrived at accurate conclusion faster? – user30484 Jul 5 '18 at 3:50
  • I just felt you answered my last question a bit better, because i did ask for different ways of expressing it, whilst naruto gave the most common way of saying it, I did ask "are there any other ways to say more and more." – I dunno what to call myself Jul 5 '18 at 4:14
6

Yes もっともっと works just as you expect in colloquial sentences, but it may sound a little too "dramatic" or even "childish" depending on the context. The most common way of saying more and more is ますます, which works both in formal and casual sentences.

Improve this answer
2
  • Ok, so would it be used in two different ways? As in “much -er” and “-er and -er” for example もっともっと強くなる would be he is getting stronger and stronger and もっともっと強いだ would mean much stronger? – I dunno what to call myself Jul 4 '18 at 13:11
  • Yoo Matsuo-san mentioned どんどん and ぐんぐん, I looked them up, so do they just refer to something rapidly happening? Or rather do they suggest that something is increasing? – I dunno what to call myself Jul 4 '18 at 13:15
2

I need clear context to understand a situation for the first sentence, though these two sentences have different nuance.

You usually say なるばかり like

寝ていても彼は強くなるばかり

Even he just sleeps but getting stronger.

So なるばかり has a meaning like "No matter what you do, it's getting something."

The latter one is like
You: That guy got stronger.
Me: Oh like you?
You: NO! He is way stronger than me (もっともっと強くなってるよ！)

Hope this clears your confusion a bit.

EDIT
I didn't see your question at the end, so yeah, ますます、どんどん、ぐんぐん are similar and as @naruto says ますます is more formal.

Improve this answer
1
  • Why down voted? – Yoo Matsuo Jul 4 '18 at 2:13

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.