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Meaning of ”By dint of” ?

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AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgJanuary 2022
Pattern is ”by dint of sth/doing sth”.

”by dint of” is synonymous with ”because of” or ”by means of”.

The emphasis is on significant effort to achieve sth.

For example: ”By dint of studying every evening, he was able to attain first class honours in his university degree.” = ”He had been studying very hard every evening. Because of doing this, he has got first class honours in his university degree.”

Nowadays, ”by dint of” is generally used only formally, although my grandparents would have been using ”by dint of” in everyday language.
  • AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgJanuary 2022
    @vincent wouldn’t ”Je me suis couché tard, donc je suis fatigué.” or ”Je suis fatigué parceque je me suis couché tard.” less formal than ”à force de me coucher tard je suis fatigué”?
  • vincent profile picture vincentJanuary 2022
    @aussie
    A force de : it’s not formal. Example : a force de me coucher tard je suis fatigué : you can use it in normal conversations
  • AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgJanuary 2022
    @vincent As I recall from French a long time ago, ”à force de qqch” is also quite formal in French.

    @nmesomtoChukwu ”by dint of” goes back many hundreds of years, but only recently became very formal. Strange!