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Sentence taken from this question:

見ず知らずの子供を助けるほど、お節介とゆーか、親切ってほどでもない。

I'm failing miserably to understand this sentence. Writing it less colloquially we presumably get:

見ず知らずの子供を助けるほど、お節介というか、親切というほどでもない。

I understand ほど to mean "to the extent that/of" e.g. 昨日ほど暑くない = "to the extent of yesterday, it's not hot" = "It's not as hot as yesterday".

My guess at a translation would be roughly:

"I'm so meddlesome that I save strange children, or rather, I don't do it out of kindness".

but I feel that would be two separate sentences: " i.e. 見ず知らず子供を助けるほど、お節介だ = "To the extent that I save strange children, I am meddlesome", and "というか、親切というほどでもない" = "Or rather, to the extent that it is kindness, it is not".

Something tells me I'm barking up the wrong tree.

user3856370
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1 Answers1

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「見ず知らずの子供を助けるほど、お節介{せっかい}とゆーか、親切{しんせつ}ってほどでもない。」

Conclusion first. The only reason that 「ほど」 is used twice is that this sentence is fairly informal/colloquial. In more formal speech, it would rarely be used twice in such a short sentence. The second 「ほど」 is the one that would be dropped in more formal speech.

So, how does one know it is informal/colloquial? One knows by the use of 「ゆーか」 and 「って」 as you yourself seem to have noticed. 「ゆーか」 is indeed very informal.

The last half of the sentence could have been formed instead as:

・「---、お節介とゆーか、親切ってわけでもない。」 or

・「---、お節介とゆーか、親切ってゆーことでもない。」

"I am not so meddlesome or rather "kind" as to go out of my way to help children I do not (even) know."