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Gogaku

All N3 grammar

N3

〜わりに(は)

Considering…, for… (result out of proportion)machine translation

FormationVerb/い-adjective plain form + わりに(は); な-adjective + なわりに; noun + のわりに

〜わりに(は) says that reality does NOT match the level you'd expect from A: 値段のわりにおいしい (tasty for the price — i.e., cheap yet better than expected). Either direction works: better or worse than expected, as long as there's a gap from the norm.

Connection: noun + のわりに, な-adjective + なわりに, verbs and い-adjectives take the plain form. A is usually something with a scale to measure against — price, age, effort: 年のわりに元気 (spry for his age), よく食べるわりに太らない (eats a lot yet doesn't gain weight).

Compared with のに: のに expresses a clear contradiction with a sense of surprise or letdown; わりに is much milder — merely "a bit off, relative to that baseline." 安いのに美味しい sounds genuinely surprised; 安いわりに美味しい is just the remark "not bad, for the price." Since it's a relative comparison, わりに isn't used when A is a specific exact number.

Examples

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