Questions tagged [not-so-much-as]

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"not as" versus "less"

English speakers seem to prefer "less powerful" over "not as powerful", and "not as big" over "less big". There's at least a ten-to-one ratio in both cases—See this Google Ngram. There also seems to ...
Peter Shor 's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
24k views

"Not so much as...but..." or "not so much as...but as...?"

What's more grammatically correct? I knew she would be standing here, waiting for me. No, not so much as waiting but *expecting me to be here. or I knew she would be standing here, waiting ...
wyc's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
1k views

not so much [adjective] as [other adjective]

I know that the construction "It is not so much funny as interesting" is valid if I want to talk about something that is both funny and interesting, but with an element of comparison. Is it still ...
pie3636's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
5k views

Not so much as [something] as [something else]

Consider the sentence: "She sees him not so much as her uncle as her friend." Is this sentence correct? I feel something is missing, or perhaps I am disturbed by the extra 'as'. Compare with: "...
neydroydrec's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
197 views

What does the negated comparative construction “not so much X as Y” mean? [duplicate]

On page 140 of his 1976 book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, author Bruno Bettelheim writes: The verses Falada speaks three times—each time in response to the ...
kinder country's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
710 views

On the use of "is not so [...] but" [closed]

Is it proper English to say: "With method A, the goal is not so to perform task B but (rather) to address problem C." Are there other more appropriate/elegant ways to convey the same meaning?
Antoine's user avatar
  • 146
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1 answer
3k views

Meaning of "did not so much as" do something [closed]

What does the following sentence, especially the highlighted phrase, mean? In that state of union, president Obama did not so much as mention the 10 sailors that had been arrested by the pirates.
Soltaan's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
1k views

Meaning of "as" in following sentence [closed]

I am not sure of the meaning of this sentence: The significance of culture and identity in development has to do not so much with the cultural factor in the process of development as with ...
Pietro's user avatar
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1 answer
73 views

What does this part of the sentence mean? "..where I had not so much arrived as simply stopped" [duplicate]

"Perhaps because I was beginning to know all too well not indeed where I was going, but where I had not so much arrived as simply stopped"---whats the function of "as" before "simply stopped"
mHJ's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
2k views

"Not X so much as Y" vs. "not so much X as Y"

E.g. which don't describe an action so much as describe a state of being which don't so much describe an action as describe a state of being Are both constructions grammatically correct? ...
Victor's user avatar
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