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Je ne connais aucun autre homme aussi têtu. D'autant (plus/moins) qu'il n'était pas question de n'importe qui, mais de sa propre sœur.

Firstly, in the sentence above, which of these three expressions is really fit for use -- and why? When the preceding sentence has a negative construction such as "ne... aucun", is it necessary to use "d'autant moins que"?

Secondly, I’m not fully sure how these expressions differ in meaning from simply using "parce que".

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Parce que => Causality
D'autant plus => Causality + intensity. You add one more information about the importance.
D'autant moins => The intensity is negative : The more the weather is beautifull, the less you work => Less work will be used in french with negative intensity, D'autant moins : « Il va travailler peu, d'autant moins qu'il fait beau. »
D'autant plus => Same idea but positive : The more the weather is bad, the more you work => « Il va travailler beaucoup, d'autant plus qu'il fait mauvais temps. »

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  • In my example sentence, would you use "d'autant plus que" or "d'autant moins que"? Merci. Jul 30, 2016 at 11:38
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I found these usage notes in Larousse helpful:

D'autant que, d'autant plus que = vu que. Ces deux locutions sont correctes.

<< Rien ne me pressait ; d'autant que le service militaire me serait sans doute épargné >> (F. Mauriac)

<< La chaleur était suffocante, d'autant plus qu'on ne se sentait pas [...] l'espace et le vent de la mer >> (A. Daudet)

According to this, either 'd'autant que' or 'd'autant plus que' would be equally fit for use in the sentence above.

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