How to Express Addition: だけでなく, ばかりか, もちろんのこと, and にとどまらず

Last time, you learned how to express limitation, e.g. “女性じょせいに限かぎり、割引わりびきがあります (There is a discount for only women),” and “今日きょうを限かぎりに、お酒さけをやめます (I will quit drinking by today).” Then, if you would like to say, “there is a discount for not only women but men,” what should you do? In this lesson, you will learn how to express addition.

Explanation for the Usage of だけでなく, ばかりか, もちろんのこと, and にとどまらず

When it comes to addition, you can simply express it by using と like “女性じょせいと男性だんせい (women and men).” However, there are several ways to express addition with different nuances such as “not only X but Y,” “X and even Y,” “not to mention…,” and “far from…” In Japanese, you need to memorize each sentence pattern to express them.

だけでなく: Not Only X But (Also) Y

This is a basic sentence pattern to express addition and is the counterpart to “not only X but (also) Y” in English. You can consider it as a noun phrase and the role is determined by particles placed at the end. In this context, the particle も or まで is often used in order to express inclusion or ranges like “from children to adults.” You can attach it not only nouns but adjectives and verbs. Regarding nouns, i-adjectives, and verbs, you don’t have to conjugate them, but you need to attach な with na-adjectives like 元気なだけでなく. This rule is applicable for other sentence patterns, too.

There are some phrases which are interchangeable with だけでなく. だけではなく has almost the same nuance. だけじゃなく is the casual version. ばかりでなく and のみならず are the formal counterparts.

ばかりか: Unexpected Addition

The grammatical rule is the same as だけでなく, but ばかりか implies unexpectedness. That is to say, ばかりか should be attached to words which indicate unusual things like working on a Saturday. Then, you can add another unusual thing like working on Sundays. Note: ばかりか sounds formal.

If you just express addition without unexpected nuances, you should use だけでなく.

はもちろん（のこと）: Reasonable Addition

はもちろんのこと implies reasonableness. That is to say, はもちろんのこと should be attached to words which indicate reasonable things like speaking English in the above example. Then, you need to add less reasonable things like speaking Arabic. You can roughly translate this as “not to mention…” in English. Regarding the conjugation, only nouns can be connected. Thus, you need to nominalize verbs and adjectives if necessary. Note: のこと is sometimes omitted.

If reasonableness is low, you should use the basic one だけでなく. Or if there is an unexpected nuance, you should use ばかりか.

There are some phrases which are interchangeable with はもちろんのこと. はもとより and は言うまでもなく have the same meaning.

どころか or はおろか: Addition for Emphasis

どころか and はおろか are the counterpart to “far from…” in English and function to emphasize a main topic by showing a strong example. There are two main differences between どころか and はおろか. The first is that you can attach any part of speech to どころか while you can only attach nouns to はおろか. Thus, with the above example, you have to use a nominalizer like 結婚するのはおろか. The second is はおろか sounds more formal than どころか.

Summary

1. だけでなく expresses “not only X but (also) Y.”
2. ばかりか indicates unexpected addition and means “X and even Y.”
3. はもちろん（のこと）indicates reasonable addition and means “not to mention.”
4. どころか and はおろか work to emphasize addition and mean “far from…”

だけでなく is most important among the four because it’s very versatile and can be replaced with ばかりか and はもちろんのこと. Thus, please master this usage first. Regarding the frequency, we think だけでなく and どころか are high. You may generally hear the rest of them in formal situations. Now, you know how to express addition in various ways. Next, you will learn how to express subjective evaluation.