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Formation: Verbs of knowing or perceiving (知る, 見る, 聞く, 調べる, 覚える) in dictionary / ている / た form + 限りでは; 私の知る限りでは; N + の + 限りでは (rare)

〜限りでは limits a statement to what the speaker knows or has checked: 'as far as I know' or 'from what I saw'. It is a hedge. It admits that the speaker's information may be incomplete, while still giving a judgement based on it. It is used almost only with verbs of knowing, seeing, hearing, researching or remembering, and the main clause states a judgement or fact that holds within that range. It is used in both speech and writing, from conversation to reports, and では is often dropped (私の知る限り). Unlike 〜限り, it cannot set a condition: 'as long as you stay' must be 〜限り, not 〜限りでは. Compared with 〜からすると, which draws a conclusion from evidence, 〜限りでは puts the stress on how narrow the speaker's knowledge is.

Variants: 〜限り (では omitted)、私の知る限り

Examples

• 私の知る限りでは、彼はそんな人ではない。
  As far as I know, he isn't that kind of person.
• 資料を調べた限りでは、同様の事故は過去にない。
  As far as the records I checked show, there has been no similar accident.
• 天気予報で見た限りでは、週末は晴れるようだ。
  From what I saw in the forecast, it looks like it'll be sunny this weekend.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

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