2級 Grammar 156-160

I'm sitting at home alone on a Saturday night, after a lazy day of studying at the beach. Florida is awesome. Don't believe me? Look at this picture of a tiny crab.

But money is stressing me out, because that job I told you I got... even that has been slowing down, so they only need me for like, a handful of hours each week. So to deal with my money problems, I went ahead and bought a bunch of Florida Lotto tickets, and oh man, if I win... 24 million dollars!

What would you do with that kind of cash?

156) ～（より）ほかない
~ is the only way/option/choice
~nothing to do but X

I like this one, cause it's pretty basic and because it's easy to conceptualize for me, in the same way I could deal with ～にほかならない (point 136). ほか is just 他 so when you think about it like that, Ｘより他ない becomes, "better than X, no other," or in sensical English "There's nothing better/other than X."

Ex. 不景気のため、お金の事を気にしているよ。ぜんぜん稼げないので宝くじを買うよりほかない。

157)　～ほどだ　・　～ほどの
~around
~about
~almost

Used for your near hyperboles.
The train was so crowded, the doors can hardly close.
The water is so cold, it almost hurts.
It's almost SHOCKING how good at Japanese I am.

ほどだ or ほどです comes at the end of a sentence; ほどの is when you want to continue the sentence. ほどの takes a noun after it.

Ex. 宝くじを言うと、高校生の時を思い出す。Pabloというバカな知り合いが選んだ番号は６分の５を当たって、むかつくほどの賞品分量をもらった。
How WOULD you say this? He hit 5 out of 6 numbers and won like, 9,000 bucks. It's not that much, I know but... that dude was an asshole. つまり「むかつくほど」.

158)　～ほど
~ as it gets X-er

This is not your basic ほど that you learned back in introductory Japanese. You remember：｢私たちはニラブほど日本語が上手ではない: We're not as good as Nirav at Japanese.」　This one is similar in usage to 「～ば　～ほど」 constructions, like ｢早ければ早いほどいい: the faster, the better.

My book uses it to say things like "As the war stretches on, casualties rise." or "The mark of an experienced mountain climber is that the more experience they have, they more cautiously they'll conduct themselves on the mountain." Japanese follows for both.

戦争が長引くほど死者が増える。
経験がある登山家ほど山で注意深く行動するものだ。

Ex. 「宝くじ切符をいっぱい買う人ほど当たるチャンスが高くなるかな」と思いながら、１０枚を買いました。１０枚なら、当たるべきだろう。

159)　～まい(1)
~ don't intend to
~ will not

This is basically equivalent to つもりではない or しないつもり: it expresses your resolve to not do something. Add it to verbs in dictionary form, or by adding　まい to the ます-less root. (考えます=考えまい.)

Ex. お金持ちになったら、友達や親戚や知り合いが僕にお願いして来る恐れがあるから、当たったら、皆に言うまい。

160) ～まい(2)
~ probably not
~ probably doesn't/won't

Used to make a guess about something that won't happen. Taking this expired medicine PROBABLY won't kill you.
Follow the same rules of construction as above.
Question: Can this be used with 過去形？

Ex. だから、今のうちに｢ジェフは当たりまい」と思っておいてね。私、当るのは当たり前と思っているけど。

Jesus, that's a terrible joke. It probably doesn't even work....