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Anonymous Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Contrarily to or contrary to?

Hello, I'm hoping someone can please explain which of the following is correct and why:

"Contrarily to popular opinion, she was unhappy."

"Contrary to popular opinion, she was unhappy."

I believe contrary is correct, but I don't know why.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

  

Top answer

anonymous I believe contrary is correct, but I don't know why. " is the correct expression. Nobody knows why, at least not in terms of grammar.

— CalifJim

  • anonymous I believe contrary is correct, but I don't know why.
  • " is the correct expression.
  • Nobody knows why, at least not in terms of grammar.
  • It's just that everybody says "contrary to" and not "contrarily to", and we want to use English the way everybody else does.
  • So it's a matter of usage , and not grammar .
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3 Answers
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anonymousI believe contrary is correct, but I don't know why.

Yes, "contrary to ..." is the correct expression.

Nobody knows why, at least not in terms of grammar. It's just that everybody says "contrary to" and not "contrarily to", and we want to use English the way everybody else does. So it's a matter of usage, and not grammar.

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“Contrary to” is grammatical. Contrary is an adverb here. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary gives the following quote from W.S. Churchill: “The Royalist commanders...contrary to all previous conventions, were....shot”.
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"Contrary to popular opinion, she was unhappy." This means that the opposite of popular opinion was true. ie Most people thought she was happy, but she wasn't. The word contrary is a common one.

"Contrarily to popular opinion, she was unhappy." contrarily has the meaning of 'opposites', as mentioned above. However, it also has another meaning. It usually sugg

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