In short

Formal Japanese would rather deny the opposite than assert a thing outright. 〜ないまでも (nai made mo) concedes the big claim and keeps a smaller one; 〜なくもない (naku mo nai) admits something grudgingly through a double negative; 〜までもない (made mo nai) and 〜には及ばない (ni wa oyobanai) say the effort is unnecessary. Your real C1 skill here is unwinding these at reading speed: count the negatives, then say the sentence in plain English.

The rule

Step 1 - 〜ないまでも: give up the ceiling, keep the floor.

V-ない + までも. It sets up a claim you are not making, then states the weaker one you are: 毎日とは言わないまでも、週に三回は運動しています。 (Mainichi to wa iwanai made mo, shū ni sankai wa undō shite imasu.) Even if not every day, I exercise three times a week.

Two attachment facts and one fixed idiom:

• い-adjectives rarely use their own 〜くない form here - they are normally routed through a verb: 高いとは言わないまでも (takai to wa iwanai made mo), 難しいとは言えないまでも (muzukashii to wa ienai made mo).
• Nouns and な-adjectives need ではない: 完璧ではないまでも (kanpeki de wa nai made mo), never ×完璧ないまでも.
• 〜とは言わないまでも (“even if I won’t go so far as to say…”) is the highest-frequency member, and it normally keeps the contrastive は of とは.

The second half must be less than the first half. A sentence where the second clause outranks the first is simply broken.

Step 2 - Grudging affirmation by double negative.

Three near-synonyms, all built on a negative that is then itself negated, all meaning roughly I suppose it isn’t impossible:

• V-ない, drop い, + くもない -> 〜なくもない: 分からなくもない (wakaranaku mo nai), I do sort of understand.
• V-ない + でもない -> 〜ないでもない: 分からないでもない.
• V-ない + ものでもない -> 〜ないものでもない: 引き受けないものでもありません (hikiukenai mono de mo arimasen), it’s not as if I couldn’t take it on.

The pragmatics matter more than the meaning. These are commitment-avoidance devices: you concede just enough to stay cooperative while refusing to be quoted on a yes. Answering a request with 引き受けないものでもありません is not agreement - it is an invitation to keep negotiating. Read them as hedges, and expect them in business talk, reviews and evaluations.

Step 3 - 〜までもない and 〜までのことはない: no need to go that far.

V-plain non-past + までもない - the action would be excessive because the point is obvious or the matter is trivial: 病院に行くまでもありません (byōin ni iku made mo arimasen), there’s no need to go as far as the hospital. The frozen adverb 言うまでもなく (iu made mo naku, needless to say) opens sentences constantly in written Japanese.

〜までのことはない is the same idea, a shade more colloquial, and typically tells someone not to overreact: そんなに怒るまでのことはありません (Sonna ni okoru made no koto wa arimasen).

Both differ from plain 〜ことはない (lesson 35 territory), which is neutral “you don’t have to”. までもない adds that would be going too far.

Step 4 - 〜には及ばない has two readings - read the noun.

• No need to (polite refusal of someone’s trouble). Noun or V-plain + には及ばない: ご心配には及びません。 (Goshinpai ni wa oyobimasen.) Please don’t trouble yourself worrying. Also わざわざ来るには及びません, お礼には及びません.
• Is no match for (comparison). 彼の腕前には及びません。 (Kare no udemae ni wa oyobimasen.) I am no match for his skill.

The disambiguator is what stands in front of に. An action or a courtesy noun (心配, 感謝, お礼, わざわざ来る) -> no need. A person, an ability or a standard (彼の腕前, 前作) -> falls short of. Note that the は is fixed: ×心配に及びません.

Step 5 - 〜どころではない: circumstances have cancelled it.

Noun / V-plain + どころではない - “this is no time for X”. Not a judgement that X is bad; the situation has simply taken X off the table: 今は忙しくて、旅行どころではありません (Ima wa isogashikute, ryokō dokoro de wa arimasen). Do not confuse it with 〜どころか (“far from X, in fact Y”), which corrects a claim rather than reporting circumstances.

Step 6 - 〜というものでもない / 〜というわけでもない: it isn’t simply so.

Both attach to a plain form and deny an over-general conclusion, extending the わけ set from lesson 53.

• 〜というものでもない attacks a principle or a rule of thumb: 安ければいいというものでもありません (Yasukereba ii to iu mono de mo arimasen), it isn’t simply the case that cheaper is better.
• 〜というわけでもない attacks an inference about this particular case: 嫌いというわけではありません, it’s not that I dislike it.

Step 7 - 〜ないとも限らない: I can’t rule it out.

V-ない + とも限らない - literally “it is not limited to not happening”, so: there’s no guarantee it won’t. 電車が止まらないとも限りません (Densha ga tomaranai to mo kagirimasen), one can’t rule out the trains stopping. The internal ない is what makes the sentence a warning; drop it and 止まるとも限りません says the opposite (it won’t necessarily stop).

Step 8 - 〜ないではおかない / 〜ずにはおかない: the literary extreme.

The most bookish member on this page: V-ない + ではおかない, or with the ず-form of lesson 54, V-ず + にはおかない. From 置く oku, “leave (it) be”: (it) will not leave things undone, hence it is bound to. この映画は見る人を感動させずにはおかないでしょう。 (Kono eiga wa miru hito o kandō sasezu ni wa okanai deshō.) This film cannot fail to move its viewers.

Two limits. It stays in the plain form - おかない is a written pattern and is not normally inflected for politeness; the politeness rides on the sentence-final auxiliary instead (…おかないでしょう). And it is not 〜ずにはいられない (lesson 65): いられない is about the speaker being unable to hold back, おかない is about a thing’s inevitable effect on others.

Step 9 - The unwinding drill. When a sentence stacks negatives, do not translate left to right. Count them: two negatives = a weak positive, three = a weak negative with a hedge on top. Then restate it in one plain clause. The last table below is the worked set.

Forms & patterns

Attachment - what goes in front of each pattern:

The four “no need” expressions, ranked by what they actually object to:

Unwinding stacked negatives - read the middle column, say the right one:

Examples

Common mistakes

• 週に三回とは言わないまでも、毎日運動しています。 (Shū ni sankai to wa iwanai made mo, mainichi undō shite imasu.) -> 毎日とは言わないまでも、週に三回は運動しています。 (Mainichi to wa iwanai made mo, shū ni sankai wa undō shite imasu.) - the claim you give up goes before ないまでも and must be the bigger one; the smaller claim you keep comes after it. Reversed, the sentence gives up less than it asserts.
• 完璧ないまでも (Kanpeki nai made mo) -> 完璧ではないまでも (Kanpeki de wa nai made mo) - nouns and な-adjectives cannot take ない directly; they negate with ではない. Only verbs and い-adjectives have a ない-form of their own.
• 分からなくないです。 (Wakaranakunai desu.) -> 分からなくもありません。 (Wakaranaku mo arimasen.) - the も is the construction. Drop it and you have a flat double negative that sounds like a slip; with も it becomes the hedged “I do sort of see it”.
• 雨が降るとも限りません。 (Ame ga furu to mo kagirimasen.) -> 雨が降らないとも限りません。 (Ame ga furanai to mo kagirimasen.) - to warn that something might happen, the verb inside とも限らない must be negative. The positive version says the opposite: it won’t necessarily rain.
• 彼が来ませんまでも、連絡はあるでしょう。 (Kare ga kimasen made mo, renraku wa aru deshō.) -> 彼が来ないまでも、連絡はあるでしょう。 (Kare ga konai made mo, renraku wa aru deshō.) - までも attaches to a plain negative. Politeness is carried once, by the final predicate.

Tips

• Count the negatives before you translate. Two negatives in one predicate almost always land on a weak positive (“I suppose so”), never on a strong one. If your English version comes out emphatic, you have unwound it wrongly. This one habit is most of what makes formal Japanese readable at C1.
• なくもない is a refusal to commit, not a yes. In a negotiation, できなくもありません means technically possible, and I want something in return. Treat these as opening positions. Their politeness comes precisely from being unquotable.
• には及ばない: look at the noun in front of に. A courtesy or an action (心配, お礼, わざわざ来る) -> no need. A person or a standard (先輩, 前作) -> falls short of. The two readings share one form and are told apart only this way.
• までもない is not the same “no need” as ことはない. 心配することはありません is neutral reassurance; 心配するまでもありません says the worry would be disproportionate. Choosing までもない about someone’s genuine concern can sound dismissive - ご心配には及びません is the safe formal alternative.