← Grammar bank

Formation: N + をおいて + (ほかに / 他に) + (N が / は) + ない / いない; or + rhetorical question (誰が / どこに〜だろうか); ほかに may be dropped (彼をおいて適任者はいない); idiom: 何をおいても / 何はおいても

This pattern singles out X as the only fitting person, place, time or thing, with strong praise or conviction: 'apart from X, there is no one or nothing else'. It is formal, typical of speeches, editorials and serious writing, and it is almost always followed by a negative such as ほかにいない or ほかにない, though ほかに itself is often left out, as in 彼をおいて適任者はいない. It can also end in a rhetorical question with the same force: 彼をおいて誰がいるだろうか ('who else is there but him?'). It is not a neutral 'except': a sentence like 'everyone came except Tanaka' takes 〜を除いて or 以外, never 〜をおいて. Compare 〜にほかならない, which says that X is exactly Y ('this is nothing other than…'), whereas 〜をおいて says no alternative to X exists; 〜は別として and 〜を抜きにして set X aside rather than raising it above everything else. The set phrase 何をおいても (also 何はおいても) is a separate idiom meaning 'before anything else, dropping everything', and it is common in everyday speech too.

Variants: 〜をおいてほかに〜ない、〜をおいてほかにはいない、〜をおいて他にない、〜をおいて（N は）いない、〜をおいて誰が〜だろうか、何をおいても、何はおいても

Examples

• この難局を乗り切れる指導者は、彼をおいてほかにいない。
  There is no leader but him who can steer us through this crisis.
• この役を演じられる俳優が、彼女をおいてどこにいるだろうか。
  Where else would you find an actor who could play this role but her?
• 知らせを受けたら、何をおいても駆けつけるつもりだ。
  If I get word, I intend to drop everything and rush over.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

No post has used this pattern yet. Examples from real texts will appear here.