だに
- 1Not even ~; used with a negative to emphasize that not even a minimal action or amount occurs.Ex. 1
- 2Even just ~ing; merely thinking of or hearing something is enough to cause a strong feeling (e.g. 考えるだに恐ろしい).
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だに is a classical particle that survives mainly in written and formal Japanese, such as literature, essays, and news commentary. It appears most often in set phrases like 想像だにしない, 微動だにしない, 一顧だにしない, and 考えるだに恐ろしい. Compared with everyday さえ or すら, it sounds stiff and dramatic and adds strong emphasis.
Learners should not use だに in casual conversation, where it sounds unnatural; use さえ or すら instead.
Note that the 'not even' sense requires a negative predicate such as できない or しない.
Do not attach だに freely to any word; it mostly occurs in established combinations like 想像だに and 考えるだに.
- (で)すらN1「すら」matches only だに's 'even' sense, but it works in both affirmative and negative sentences and combines more freely, as in「ですら」and「てすら」; it has no usage like「聞くだに」, where だに means 'merely by ~ing.'
- さえN3「さえ」also means 'even' but with a neutral tone, used freely in both speech and writing and not restricted to negatives; it can additionally convey 'or even' and form the pattern「さえ〜ば」, but it has no counterpart to だに's 'merely by ~ing' sense.
- たりともN1「たりとも」is close only to だに's 'not even' sense; it typically attaches to minimal-quantity words like「一＋counter」or「何人」, is followed by a negative or prohibitive form, and appears often in rules and admonitions, with no 'merely by ~ing' usage.
- はおろかN1「はおろか」sets two items side by side: a demanding X first, then a more basic Y introduced by も・さえ・すら, meaning 'let alone X, even Y...';「だに」emphasizes a single item ('not even...'), so the two cannot be directly interchanged.
- 極まる・極まりないN1「極まる・極まりない」attaches to な-adjective stems to mean 'to the extreme degree,' while「だに」attaches to nouns or verbs of perception and thought to mean 'not even' or 'merely by ~ing'; though both are literary emphatic expressions, they are not interchangeable.
だに, (で)すら and さえ all mean 'even', but さえ is neutral and very common, すら is somewhat formal, and だに is the most literary and largely limited to set phrases. たりとも follows 一 + counter or a word like 誰 (一日たりとも, 誰たりとも) to mean 'not even one / no one at all'; はおろか contrasts two items ('let alone X, not even Y'); and 極まる・極まりない has an unrelated meaning ('extremely').
