ほどのことではないnot worth …ing over
You size something up and find it too small to call for a reaction: worry, anger, a fuss, a report. "It's nothing to … about."
If it's just a typo like that, it's nothing to worry about.
It's hardly worth reporting to the department head.
How to form it
Verb (dictionary form) + ほどのことではない
Polite ほどのことではありません; in conversation ほどのことじゃない. ほどのことでもない is a shade softer: "hardly worth".
- Before it
- The reaction or step that would be too much: 心配する, 騒ぐ, 怒る, 驚く, 気にする, 報告する. Often with わざわざ.
- Often with
- What makes it small, said first: その程度なら, …くらいで, …だけだから.
- Tone
- Calm. It plays the matter down.
- Where you'll meet it
- Conversation and writing alike. The blunter everyday word is 大したことじゃない, "it's no big deal".
In use
His reply was a little curt, but it's nothing to get angry about.
That? It's not worth letting it bother you.
I only did what anyone would do. It's nothing to thank me for.
Modest, about your own deed.
Two things to know
It calls the matter small
When the matter is your own, a trouble or a good deed, that is modest. When it is someone else's upset, it can comfort, or it can sound as if you are making light of it.
A noun in place of こと
The noun names what is being sized up: 騒ぐほどの問題ではない, "not a problem worth making a fuss about".
Luckily, the injury wasn't bad enough to need a hospital stay.
Close neighbours
ほどではないN3
Without こと, it measures a degree: "not so … that". With こと, you pass judgment on the whole matter.
I have a slight headache, but not so bad that I'd take medicine.
ことはないN3
Said to a person: you don't have to. It speaks of what they do, not of how small the matter is, so it is the warmer of the two.
There's no need to worry so much.
までもないN1
About a step you might take: no need to go that far, often because the answer is already plain.
One look at his beaming smile is enough; there is no need to ask how the exam went.
には当たらないN1
Written and measured: weighed against the facts, the reaction is uncalled for. It doesn't say the matter is small.
Given his ability, this win is no cause for surprise.
Check yourself
1A friend is worrying over a small mistake. Which reply says the mistake itself is small?
Choose an answer to see why.
2Which one fits?
かすり傷だから、
Choose an answer to see why.
More sentences
The schedule is only a little behind, so it's nothing to make a fuss about.
Being corrected once is nothing to go on agonizing over.
The discrepancy in the figures is small, and not worth explaining in detail in the report.
The scratch is only in the surface coating, so it's not worth replacing the part over.
The meeting has only moved by a day. That is no reason to rethink the whole plan.