Is the sentence "I didn't marry you because you were rich." same as " I married you not because you were rich but for another reason."
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1The first one is ambiguous (although it can always be resolved by context). It could mean the same as the second, but it could also mean "the reason I didn't marry you is that you were rich".– Peter ShorCommented Sep 18, 2014 at 12:37
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Why does this question remind me of a cellphone? Maybe because yesterday, this question was asked on our sister-site, English Language Learners :)– oerkelensCommented Sep 18, 2014 at 12:51
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2 Answers
Perhaps "I didn't marry you because you were rich." was intended to mean " I married you not because you were rich but for another reason."
However, it could also be interpreted as meaning "I declined to marry you, because I didn't want a rich wife."
They both express the same idea -- that a reason other than wealth is why the speaker married the subject. The first sentence is more likely to be ambiguous, as Peter Shor noted:
- is the speaker married to the subject, for a reason other than wealth?
- is the speaker not married to the subject, because they're rich?
In either case, a native speaker would probably expect to hear a parallel structure for each sentence. For example:
I didn't marry you because you were rich. [I married you because you were my soulmate.]
and:
I married you not because you were rich, [but because you were my soulmate].
Without the parallel construction, the first sentence sounds a little more natural.
