到…的地步 / 至…之地步【dào … de dìbù / zhì … zhī dìbù】

地步 is the state something reaches at the end of a slide, usually an extreme one. 到…的地步 puts a clause between 到 and 地步 to describe how far things went. The literary form swaps 到 for 至 and 的 for 之.

What goes in the middle

The middle describes the state: a clause with 连…都, a 无法 or 不能 phrase, or a four-character phrase. A plain adjective is too thin to fill it.

• × 他忙到了很忙的地步 → 他忙到了连周末都要加班的地步

事情到了这个地步 and 怎么会到这种地步 point back at a state already described: "this far".

An extreme, not a degree

地步 marks something that has gone too far, or a striking extreme. For an ordinary degree, use 程度, or a 得 complement – a phrase after the verb that says how it turned out.

• × 他的中文提高到了还可以的地步 → 他的中文提高到了一定的程度

A positive extreme works, as long as it is extreme.

以至于…的地步

以至于 stresses that the extreme followed from what came before. 不至于 – "not go as far as" – denies that it did, and has its own point.