All the more

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Phrase: All the more

I have an adverb for you today.

All the more is used when something is even more impressive, surprising etc., because of additional information.

For example, I could tell you that Hideki just climbed Mt. Fuji for the eighth time.

On its own, this is a pretty impressive accomplishment.

It would be all the more impressive if I said he had summited Mt.Fuji six times since his seventy-fifth birthday.

See what I mean?

We use this phrase to add some ‘plus alpha’ information, as the Japanese say.

Recently, there was a terrible arson attack against a Kyoto animation studio.

I feel it was an act of terrorism, but my opinion is neither here nor there.

Such an attack could have happened anywhere in Japan, and it still would have been a shocking, terrible and senseless loss of innocent lives.

It was, however, all the more surprising because it was against an animation studio to which many people had a personal connection.

It’s not very often that readers or viewers have the opportunity to know who created the works they love.

Due to the tragedy and rarity of such attacks in Japan, the emotion society feels is all the more painful.

You see, all the more is used in various positive or negative circumstances.

People all over the world study English.

Most struggle and find it difficult.

With that said English has always been a useful skill when it comes to receiving a pay raise or a coveted overseas transfer to Japan.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make learning the language any easier.

One of my students told me something which makes the language mountain all the more challenging to climb.

Their supervisor suggested they learn a second foreign language.

Yep, English is not enough.

Now they need another one.

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.