0
  1. To his consternation, when he got to the airport he found he'd forgotten his passport.

(Source: Consternation Meaning: Cambridge Dictionary)

  1. Much to her parents' consternation, she had decided to not go to college. (Source: Britanica Consternation Meaning).

I was learning the meanings of consternation from different dictionaries. To someone's consternation attracted my eyes. Even though now I know the meanings of consternation, I cannot understand the exact meaning of to someone's consternation. It seems a little bit archaic.

a) What if the first sentence is written in the following way?

When he got to the airport, he found in consternation he had forgotten his passport.

b) What does the second sentence actually mean? The parents were disappointed because she had decided to not go to college, or as her parents were anxious, she decided not to go to college? Furthermore, why has an extra word much been added to parents' consternation?

Improve this question
5
  • 2
    To is used in many expressions for state of mind or emotions: to his annoyance, to his surprise, etc.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 18:00
  • The consternation was caused by the daughter's decision; no doubt they had fully expected her to go to college and obtain some qualifications. Much emphasises how great their consternation was.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 18:43
  • 'To his dismay, ...' is a lot more common, if a little more severe.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 20:29
  • "much" just adds emphasis.
    – Barmar
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 22:42
  • 1
    Why do you guys so often answer questions in the comments? You leave a question unanswered, while it's pretty much answered in the comments. That seems strange to me.
    – Jelila
    Commented Dec 23, 2022 at 22:32

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
1

Replace "consternation" with dismay.

To his dismay

Much to her parents' dismay

As for a, if you replaced consternation with dismay, I think you'll find your sentence is just not correct.

Improve this answer
1

a) The way you rewrote sentence 1 reduced the drama and dynamics of this sentence. To have much to his consternation in the beginning makes the readers anticipate, because you are giving them first the effect so he knows the cause will be given. So, although your version of it is perfectly correct, I would still prefer the original for its effective tone.

b) As I have already mentioned, in this structure, effect comes before the cause:

much to someone’s surprise​/​amazement​/​annoyance etc
used for saying that something happens that surprises, annoys etc someone a lot

  • Much to my surprise, they offered me a £4,000 scholarship. (Macmillan)

I am surprised because they offered me the scholarship. It is not because I am surprised that they gave me the scholarship. The same with your sentence 2: The parents were consternated because she had decided to not go to college.

Improve this answer
0

To his surprise/delight/annoyance/dismay, etc.

These are all prepositional phrases that act as adverbial free modifiers to the main clause

Surprisingly, the machine functioned well

Delightfully, the machine functioned well

Annoyingly, the machine functioned well

Dismayingly(?), the machine functioned well

Consternation does not have a parallel adverb, and so the prepositional phrase serves that purpose.

You will note that the prepositional phrase has the advantage over the adverb as the adverb alone does not include a reference to a possessive and that would have to be added by using "to him, etc."

The origin seems to be either (i) in Old English in which the dative grammatical case was used to indicate a complement (particularly an adverbial) or Norman French (Modern French - à sa surprise), etc.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .