All but

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Taka

#452434 Wed, 12 Dec 07 02:08 PM

How come you native speakers perceive 'all but' as the same as 'almost'?

Taka

Joined on Tue, Sep 7 2004

Japan

Senior Member (2,351)

Cool Breeze

#452445 Wed, 12 Dec 07 02:53 PM

Hi Taka

Even nonnative speakers of English use all but to mean almost. It can be used to mean everyone except as well:

All but Mr Smith left the station.

CB

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,999)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Taka

#452454 Wed, 12 Dec 07 03:12 PM

I know the meaning, CB. I'm just wondering why it means 'almost'.

It's 'all'+'but', right? How come such combination brings the meaning 'almost'? That is my question.

Taka

Yankee

#452461 Wed, 12 Dec 07 03:36 PM

It's often difficult to say why expressions come to mean what they mean, but CB's example with Mr. Smith seems to give a good indication -- i.e. the idea of "everything except one".

You might look at the sentence "He's all but broke" as meaning something similar to "All of his money except a dollar or two is gone."

Yankee

Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006

Connecticut, USA

Senior Member (4,299)

Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Expressions

Cool Breeze

#452475 Wed, 12 Dec 07 04:07 PM

Taka wrote:
I know the meaning, CB. I'm just wondering why it means 'almost'.

Taka, you are Japanese and thus want logic in everything. Smile [:)]

Very often, there's no knowing why certain expressions and phrases mean what they mean - in any language. English isn't the only language in this category. I am not acquainted with the Japanese language at all but I should think even it has some inexplicable expressions. I know Finnish does.

CB

Cool Breeze

Expressions

Taka

#452478 Wed, 12 Dec 07 04:11 PM

Yankee wrote:
It's often difficult to say why expressions come to mean what they mean, but CB's example with Mr. Smith seems to give a good indication -- i.e. the idea of "everything except one".

Yes, Amy. I had tried to adapt the "everything except one" idea. But then I got confused.

all but Mr. Smith=>everyone except Mr. Smith=>i.e. Mr. Smith (totally) excluded
all but impossible=>almost impossible=>i.e. impossibility almost included, not totally excluded

Taka

Expressions

Yankee

#452489 Wed, 12 Dec 07 04:39 PM

Hi Taka

Maybe looking at it this way will help soothe your discomfort over the logic of the expression:

Technically speaking, "all but impossible" excludes impossible as an absolute idea. It's not completely impossible, but very nearly.

Likewise, if Mr. Smith is part of a group consisting of Mr. Smith, Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. C, Mr. D, Mr. E, Mr. F, and Mr. G, and Mr. Smith is not present on a particular occasion, then the group is not complete, but very nearly.

Don't drive yourself too crazy over the logic (or the lack thereof) of the English language. Wink [;)]

Yankee

Expressions

Hoa Thai

#452496 Wed, 12 Dec 07 04:55 PM

Hi Taka,

Let me try using a pattern recogition technique here and see if we can equate all but to almost

All but (Mr. Smith) left the station = except (Mr. Smith), all left the station.

He is all but (a few pennies) broke = except (a few pennies), he lost everything.

He is all but (…) broke = except (…), he lost everything (i.e., he lost almost everything).

Best,
Hoa Thai
EDIT: I think we can equate he is all but broke to he is all broke except a little left

Hoa Thai

Joined on Mon, Oct 15 2007

Vietnam

Contributing Member (1,100)

Best Regards - Hoa Thai

CalifJim

#452523 Wed, 12 Dec 07 07:16 PM

It's probably related to the usage of all in the expression all the way (the entire distance; completely) and in expressions like all gone or all tired out.

all but X = all the way it is possible to go in the direction of X-ness, but without actually reaching X-ness itself.
So, almost in the state of X-ness, almost X.

This 'going in the direction of a quality' is, of course, metaphoric.

all but finished = all the way it is possible to go in the direction of being finished, but not completely finished = almost finished
all but impossible = all the way it is possible to go in the direction of impossibility, but not completely impossible = almost impossible

The paraphrase above is consistent with the fact that the accompanying adjective has to represent an absolute end point of some kind. It makes little sense, in ordinary circumstances, to use all but with happy or yellow! (?all but happy?, ?all but yellow?). But -- also consistent with the paraphrase -- with past participles of 'verbs of achievement' or adjectives of final state all but works quite well.

The contest was all but won. (almost won, about to be won)
The matter was all but decided. (almost decided, about to be decided)
The beast was all but dead. (almost dead, about to die)

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,716)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Verbs, Expressions

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