Commas with as

Question

I'm helping a friend learn English and having trouble explaining why the sentence "Spiders are not insects, as many people believe..." means that many people believe spiders are insects, not that many people believe spiders are not insects. Any help would be appreciated.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

I think you need to consider the reasonability of each interpretation.

Spiders are not insects, as many people believe
*** is great, as many people believe

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymoushaving trouble explaining

It has to do with the scope of negation, I suppose, and its interaction with "as".

In practical terms, you might just say "That's the way it works" and then provide several more sentences with negation and "as many people believe" (or similar phrases with "as") for the student to work out, for example:

Dolphins are not fish, as many people believe.
Tulips don't grow on tulip trees, as some people have claimed.
People can't die by spontaneous combustion, as Dickens described in Bleak House.
_______________________

If you are not sure this method will work, as a preparatory exercise you might first try not as [adj] as structures, emphasizing the word groupings in brackets shown below.

Caffeine is not [as harmful as some doctors say]. (This doesn't mean that some doctors say that caffeine is not harmful.)
Jack is not [as good at figures as he claims he is]. (This doesn't mean that Jack claims he is not good at figures.)
The universe is not [as small as it was once believed to be]. (This doesn't mean that people once believed the universe was not small.)

This may trigger the idea of this grouping, to which it may be compared:

Spiders are not [insects, as many people believe]. Compare: Spiders are not [as insect-like as many people believe].

The scope of negation is similar in both structures; namely, it goes to the end of the sentence.

CJ

Commas with as

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