あまりの～に
such excessive …
あまりの～に is the prenominal version of あまり: あまりの goes before a noun of degree, and に marks that sheer extent as the cause of what follows. The noun is very often an い-adjective converted with ～さ (忙しい → 忙しさ, 暑い → 暑さ).
In English it comes out as “out of sheer ...” or “it was so ... that ...”.
The sheer extent as a cause
The あまりの～に phrase states the overwhelming degree; the main clause states what it caused — often something involuntary or impossible.
あまりの忙しさに、食事をする時間もなかった。
“I was so busy that I had no time even to eat.”
- あまりの = sheer, excessive (before a noun)
- 忙しさ（いそがしさ）= busyness (noun form of 忙しい)
- に = particle marking the cause
- 食事（しょくじ）= meal
- を = object marker
- する = to do, to have (a meal)
- 時間（じかん）= time
- も = even
- なかった = there was not
あまりの暑さに、頭が痛くなった。
“It was so terribly hot that my head started to ache.”
- あまりの = sheer, excessive
- 暑さ（あつさ）= heat (noun form of 暑い)
- に = particle marking the cause
- 頭（あたま）= head
- が = subject marker
- 痛くなった（いたくなった）= started to hurt
How to form it
あまりの + noun (often い-adjective stem + さ) + に + result clause
- 忙しい（いそがしい）= busy → あまりの忙しさに（あまりのいそがしさに）= from sheer busyness
- 暑い（あつい）= hot → あまりの暑さに（あまりのあつさに）= from the sheer heat
- 嬉しい（うれしい）= happy → あまりの嬉しさに（あまりのうれしさに）= out of sheer joy
Key idea
あまりの～に bottles an extreme degree up into a single noun, then uses に to pour it out as the cause: the extent was so overwhelming that the result simply happened.
Built on the same stem
Updated .