let alone
185
3.4
- idiom
:
y mucho menos
- We've never had anybody, let alone two people, get a perfect score.
- one, let alone two
- let alone take
- let alone invest
How can a city possibly survive, let alone thrive?
- How can a city possibly survive, let alone thrive?
- There was no time, let alone brain space to do anything like that.
- Who would have thought I would read the whole thing, let alone in one day?
- They could rarely see their attackers, let alone fire back with any real effect.
- In fact, most people can't even read Infinite Jest, let alone write the book, right.
- Like I could never ride a horse that well, let alone hit a ball while doing it.
- You could be augmenting your children just through gene selection, let alone gene editing.
- To be the only black person, let alone there was no women in that class.
Examples
-
At times, he could barely think, let alone write.
-
I will not stop any work that might lead to an answer, let alone in an area that is central to the condition.
-
There was no time, let alone brain space to do anything like that.
-
Who would have thought I would read the whole thing, let alone in one day?
-
Without them, human beings cannot live, let alone live well.
-
How can a city possibly survive, let alone thrive?
-
Here is something that almost no scientist, let alone in the public, understands.
-
Predictably, the book does not raise that question, let alone help us find an answer.
Academic text (1990) -
You don't look like you know where the motor is, let alone how to use it.
-
I can hardly finish this project on time, let alone make it perfect.
Synonyms
465
3.7
Shows that something is even more important than what was just said
77
3.9
Shows that something is even less likely or possible than what came before
How Emphatic
Surface Forms
Morphology
let + alone
The concessive phrase 'let alone' does not compose straightforwardly from 'let' (allow) and 'alone' (by oneself); its function is idiomatic, marking emphasis/contrast meaning 'much less' or 'not to mention'. A B1 learner who knows the individual words would be unlikely to derive this discourse-level function from the literal meanings, so it is not transparently predictable.
Etymology
Let alone uses a simple picture: if you cannot do a small, easy thing, you surely cannot do a bigger, harder one. Think of let as 'allow' and alone as 'by itself', so the phrase shows the second thing is 'much less' likely.