adverbial N2 common casualpolitewritten

よほど — considerably

よほど

Meaning

considerably / very much / to quite a degree — infers an unusually high degree, often as the speaker's guess about a cause

Often signals the speaker is inferring an extreme degree from evidence ('it must have been quite ~'); can also mark a strong impulse one held back from (よほど言いおうかと思おもった 'I half thought of saying it').

Key sentence

あんなに食たべるなんて、よほどお腹なかが空すいていたんだろう。

Eating that much — he must have been really hungry.

Examples

彼かれがそこまで怒おこるとは、よほどのことがあったに違ちがいない。

For him to get that angry, something quite serious must have happened.

今日きょうの試験しけんは、よほど難むずかしかったらしい。

Today's exam was apparently quite difficult.

When you can't use it

Frequently appears with conjecture (〜のだろう / に違ちがいない), reflecting an inferred high degree. よっぽど is the more casual spoken variant.

Easily confused with

かなりかなり flatly states 'quite / considerably' as observed fact; よほど leans on inference — 'it must be considerably ~', a degree guessed from the situation. あまり Different meaning but easily confused: あまり (+neg) = 'not very'; よほど = a strongly affirmative 'considerably'.

Notes

Casual variant よっぽど (よっぽど疲つかれていたんだろう).

See よほど in real sentences

Jengo shows よほど the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled from published Japanese grammar references.

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