どころか is used to express to the listener that the result was almost the exact opposite from what you would actually expect, e.g. Far from being angry about his son’s decision, the father was overjoyed. It attaches to the dictionary form of nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

かれは明らかにわるいことをしたのに、あやまるどころかほかひとのせいにしたんだよ。
Although he’d clearly done wrong, far from apologising he blamed it on someone else.
電話でんわどころか、メールもおくってくれなかった。
Never mind a telephone call, she didn’t even send an email.
いまは、くるまどころか、自転車じてんしゃでもうおかねがない。
At the moment I don’t even have money to buy a bicycle let alone a car.
警察けいさついかけられて減速げんそくするどころか、加速かそくしてげた。
He was being chased by police but instead of slowing down he accelerated away.
かれ漢字かんじどころか、ひらがなでもめない。
He can’t even read hiragana, let alone kanji.
You May Also Like

The Japanese Scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji

There are three core scripts in Japanese: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. In addition, romaji is used to give…

Decisions: ことにする

JLPT N4. Used in both writing and conversation. We use the below structure to show that we have…

ばかり vs だらけ

So what’s the difference? Both phrases have a negative connotation and both can be used to say there…

Japanese Conjunctions: Before (前)

The basic structure we use to say “before” is: 【Subsequent Action】前まえに【Prior Action】 Both the subsequent and prior actions…