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Tobejodok Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
but weaker still
Hi there,
I'm from Poland, and I was wondering if You could help me out with a sentence I've tried to build. It's pobably nothing difficult for You, but I just can't get it out of my head. I'm pretty sure I've heard or seen a construction like this somewhere.
The dim light was strong enough to draw his attention, but weaker still [than] to give the dwarf any insight into the house's interior.
here's the thing ---> ..but the second degree of comparison still.. (..but stronger still.., ..but heavier still.., and so on)
The question is: Does such a construction exist? Is it grammaticaly correct? And if it is, should there be 'THAN' before the infinitive, or not, or is it correct either way?
I know I could write this way:
The dim light was strong enough to draw his attention, but still too weak to give the dwarf any insight into the house's interior.
But that will not do. I find it too simplistic, and it does not express exactly what I want to say (I think there's quite a space between the two sentences above). I'd really appreciate any input You could provide as it's killing me :-)
I'm from Poland, and I was wondering if You could help me out with a sentence I've tried to build. It's pobably nothing difficult for You, but I just can't get it out of my head. I'm pretty sure I've heard or seen a construction like this somewhere.
The dim light was strong enough to draw his attention, but weaker still [than] to give the dwarf any insight into the house's interior.
here's the thing ---> ..but the second degree of comparison still.. (..but stronger still.., ..but heavier still.., and so on)
The question is: Does such a construction exist? Is it grammaticaly correct? And if it is, should there be 'THAN' before the infinitive, or not, or is it correct either way?
I know I could write this way:
The dim light was strong enough to draw his attention, but still too weak to give the dwarf any insight into the house's interior.
But that will not do. I find it too simplistic, and it does not express exactly what I want to say (I think there's quite a space between the two sentences above). I'd really appreciate any input You could provide as it's killing me :-)
Top answer
Sorry, but to me what you are trying to do makes no sense-- you cannot unite the comparative of one adjective/adverb with its absolute opposite ( strong/weaker ). As far as I know, no similar construction exists and I am perfectly satisfied that but still too weak conveys the only reasonable association in this sentence.
- Sorry, but to me what you are trying to do makes no sense-- you cannot unite the comparative of one adjective/adverb with its absolute opposite ( strong/weaker ).
- As far as I know, no similar construction exists and I am perfectly satisfied that but still too weak conveys the only reasonable association in this sentence.
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2 Answers
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Sorry, but to me what you are trying to do makes no sense-- you cannot unite the comparative of one adjective/adverb with its absolute opposite (strong/weaker). As far as I know, no similar construction exists and I am perfectly satisfied that but still too weak conveys the only reasonable association in this sentence.
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"weaker still than to" is not going to do it for you, I'm afraid!
I think the sentence below is what you want.
"The light was strong enough to draw the dwarf's attention, but [not strong enough / too weak / too dim] to [give / afford] him a clear view of the interior of the house."
"not ... enough to ..." and "too ... to ..." are the formulas, simplistic though
I think the sentence below is what you want.
"The light was strong enough to draw the dwarf's attention, but [not strong enough / too weak / too dim] to [give / afford] him a clear view of the interior of the house."
"not ... enough to ..." and "too ... to ..." are the formulas, simplistic though
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