Purpose of hodo in this sentence

[letslearn]

Hi all,
I was wondering how hodo effects this sentence.

言葉にならないほどの想いをどれだけ貴方に伝えられる だろう

I tried to break the sentence down into parts.

言葉にならない. Do not become words.
ほどの想いを. Extent of feelings.
どれだけ. How many.
貴方に伝えられるだろう able to tell you, I wonder?

Is the writer saying.... I wonder how many times my feelings won't be able to be conveyed because I can't put them into words ?

 

[blutorange]

Let's consider it without hodo first. 言葉にならないの想い may describe a fact, and it is absolute - thoughts/feelings that cannot be put into word.

言葉にならないほどの想い adds an additional dimension - feelings so much something, to the extent that they/I cannot (be) put them into words. ほど implies some adjectival quality - to be something to the extent that... .

"I wonder just how well I can convey my feeling for you I can't even put into words."
Notice that the English "even" implies some adjective as well. Why can't he even put them into words - because those feelings for her are so...?

Another example from the ShinWaEiDaijiten:

「その町には公園と呼べるほどの施設はない」 - "There is no facility in that town worth calling a park."

Note that the word "worth" from the translation does not appear anywhere in the Japanese sentence - it is the quality implied by hodo. You can avoid adding "worth" at the cost of making it sound a bit clumsy in English: "In the town, there is no facility (of) such (quality) that it can even be called a park."

 

[letslearn]

I see. In my attempt I also interpreted どれだけ in this case as how many, but really it is just how? And it's all about the extent of the feelings being so strong.

I wonder How I'll be able to convey my feelings to you when I can't even put them into words.

Hodo is quite a strange grammar point.
I know the one like 勉強すらばするほど上手になる the more you study the better you get.

Thanks heaps for your explanation.

Do you know of a good online source for hodo grammar?

 

[blutorange]

It should 勉強す*れ*ば, not 勉強すらば. I'd say the ほど here works ptetty similar, as in that you could "extent" as a literal translation to both. Try not to rely too much on translations - there are many English/Japanese words for one Japanese/English word - but try to get a feeling for how the Japanese works.

とれだけ, perhaps it helps to think of this as "how much" in this context. どれだけ modifies the verb 伝えられる. To see where this word comes from, in kanji だけ can be written 丈 and literally means "length".

ほど can have several other meanings. particles [The Nihongoresources Grammar book] explains what you know about already. One way of learning is just to observe how ほど is used in sentences, take a look at a good dictionary:

Includes example sentences in Japanese+English:
ほど【程】の英語・英訳 - 和英辞書 - goo辞書 程 as a noun.
ほど【程】の英語・英訳 - 和英辞書 - goo辞書 ほど as a particle.