もさることながら
- 1X is certainly important, but Y matters even more.Ex. 1
- 2Besides X, which goes without saying, Y is also noteworthy.Ex. 2
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A formal, literary expression found in essays, speeches, reviews and editorials. It concedes the first item and then shifts the focus to the second, which carries the speaker's main point. It is stiffer and more evaluative than everyday equivalents such as はもちろん or ばかりでなく.
Note that the main emphasis falls on the item after the comma, not on the noun before もさることながら.
Do not attach it directly to verbs or adjectives; it normally follows a noun.
Learners should avoid it in casual conversation, where はもちろん or だけでなく sound more natural.
- 1.はもちろんN3「はもちろん」treats the first item as a given and simply adds a similar second item; pairing it with 「まで」or「さえ」can make the second item sound unexpected. It works in both speech and writing and attaches to 「noun + case particle」— use 「もさることながら」when you want to stress that the second item is the more important one.
- 2.のみならずN2「のみならず」just broadens the scope without weighing one item over the other, while 「もさることながら」puts the focus on the second item. 「のみならず」can also attach to verbs and adjectives and appear at the start of a sentence, whereas 「もさることながら」attaches only to nouns.
- 3.にもましてN1「にもまして」is a comparison of degree that explicitly says the second item surpasses the first; it does not mean 'just as important.' It also attaches to interrogatives and demonstratives, as in 「何にもまして」and「それにもまして」, and the two are roughly interchangeable only when the second item is 'even more so.'
- 4.はおろかN1「はおろか」means 'let alone X, even the more basic Y…' and its second item is usually negative; 「もさることながら」first affirms the first item and then stresses the second, so it is not used for this kind of negative contrast and the two are generally not interchangeable.
- 5.ばかりでなくN3「ばかりでなく」is stylistically neutral and attaches to nouns, verbs, and adjectives (na-adjectives take 「な」), while 「もさることながら」leans written, attaches only to nouns, and highlights the second item more. The two can be swapped in noun sentences, but the sense of weighting weakens.
はもちろん and ばかりでなく are neutral 'of course X / not only X, but also Y', and のみならず is a formal 'not only'. None of them shifts the weight toward the second item as clearly as もさることながら. にもまして explicitly compares ('even more than X'), and はおろか means 'let alone' and typically appears in negative statements where the second item is the more basic one.
