（更）何況grammar point · tier 2 · （更）何況 let alone / much less (a fortiori escalation)
Grants a case where something already holds, then names a second case where it holds even more plainly, so that one argues itself.
字源 FORM what the parts do
何 is the carrier-graph (亻 a person with a load) loaned to the question words what, how; 況 is water (氵) with 兄 xiōng for the sound, loaned off its dead cold-water sense to the let-alone work. Together they ask how much more so, of the second case. The optional 更 fronts it: a stick-hand (攴) that alters a thing, one change piling onto another until it means even more — it dials the step up harder.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
A heavy stone already sits on the scale; a heavier one slides behind it and tips it without a push.
字源自撰記憶法
框 · Frame
[case A, already true]，（更）何況 [case B, the stronger case]
觸 · Trigger
You have stated something that already holds, and want to name a second case where it holds even more obviously — proof enough on its own.
序 · The move
1state case A and let it land as already trueis A granted on its own, not still being argued?
2（更）何況 + case B, the stronger casedoes B make the predicate even more obvious than A did — the harder, clearer instance?
3leave B's conclusion unstatedis the point about B self-evident from A, with no fresh reason needed?
例 · Examples
1比賽competition, match前before一定surely, bound to會緊張nervous, tense，更何況let alone, much more so是第一次the first time參加to take part in比賽的選手athlete, contestant。
Anyone is bound to be nervous before a competition, let alone an athlete competing for the very first time.
（更）何況 stacks two clauses — a granted case, then a stronger second case that argues itself; 連…都… spotlights one extreme instance inside a single clause and sweeps it in with 都.
不但…而且…
（更）何況 leaves the second conclusion unstated as obvious from the first; 不但…而且… spells out both claims and asserts the second outright.
second case is no stronger than the first, so nothing escalates: 老人會累，何況年輕人 → 年輕人都會累，何況老人
stating B's conclusion as if it still needed proof: 更何況新手也一定會緊張 → 更何況是新手選手
using it to add a merely parallel fact rather than a stronger case: 他會中文，何況也會英文 → 他會中文，而且也會英文
English 'let alone' follows a negative ('can't lift fifty, let alone a hundred'); Chinese （更）何況 works off a positive granted case too, and learners reach instead for 而且 or 也, flattening the a fortiori jump into a plain addition.