anything but

Hi!

Reading the ESL lesson about English Adverbs, I found, in the “High Hopes” story the word BUT in the following sentence and I couldn’t understand the meaning in such a sentence.

I stepped on a piece of grass which I thought was solid but soon discovered was anything but. I slipped immediately and began to descend.

Is there a mistake in this sentence or what does BUT mean in this case?

Regards.

I thought the piece of grass was solid, but it was anything but (the part in bold means but it was not solid at all)
Another example:

At first I thought he was reasonable but now I realize he is anything but because he won’t listen to the voice of reason.

Please someone let me know which of these sentences below might be correct ones.

  1. I thought he was nice but he is anything but. or
  2. I thought he was nice but he is anything but nice.
  3. I thought he was nice but he is anything but that.
  4. I thought he was nice but he is anything but as such.

Thanks

anything but is a fixed expression in this sense.

Nobody has let me known whether my sentences were correct or not.

HI!

Thank you for this useful and interesting information.

Now I think I understood the sense. Anything but is, as you say, a fixed expression that we can use when we mean that what we suppose is not correct, but completely different or opposite.

For example, when I made my question in the forum about this expression, I thought there was a mistake or something was missing, but it was anything but.

Is my sentence correct?

Cheers!

I think it should have been ‘there was’ not ‘it was’.

I think a case can be made for both ‘there was’ and ‘it was’ in that sentence.

it was anything but (what I thought) - OK
there was anything but (a mistake or something missing) - OK

Yes, but any way, I still consider ‘I thought’ is not as important as ‘there was’. So, ‘There’ is more likely to be used, I believe.

There iis no such order of importance. It all depends on the greater context.

Hi,

While everyone is picking over the bones of what I wrote years ago:

I’d like to add that neither ‘it’ nor ‘there’ is needed because the relative pronoun ‘which’ links ‘grass’ with ‘anything but’. Now let it rest in peace! There seems to be a growing tendency recently for a simple question to be asked followed by a simple answer and then a series of quibbles develop and confuse the whole issue.

Alan

Hi Alan,

As far as I am concerned, the question of ‘it’ and ‘there’ was related to this sentence, not to yours:

Lobo seems to have been trying to apply knowledge of the phrase in a different context to aid learning.

The point I’m making is that it started with the sentence I wrote and that’s why I made my general gripe about these endless stringy threads that go nowhere. But hush I’m falling into the quibble mode myself.

Alan

Hi Alan,

Surely you are aware that learners of English frequently have follow-up questions about particular grammar points, word usage, idioms, etc. Why get all cut and bleeding simply because a learner is trying to learn and/or understand something better? Isn’t that something this forum was designed to encourage? Why shouldn’t learners feel free to test the water with their own sentences and ask for feedback and further input? It seems to me you ought to feel elated about the fact that one of your test sentences resulted in so much discussion.

In other words, I think you ought to feel anything but defensive.
:wink:
[color=darkblue]_______________________________________________________________
[size=75]“When actors are being defensive and defending their position, that is when you get less than good acting.” ~ John Boorman[/size]

I stepped on a piece of grass which I thought was solid but soon discovered was anything but.

Please do not be angry with me but I’d like to ask could this sentence be written this way below

I stepped on a piece of grass which I thought was solid but soon discovered [color=violet]as anything but.

Thanks