correct use of "rarely" and "as"?

RIPIs the following correct?

"I have rarely felt as confident to give a supporting speech as I have for John."

I would very much appreciate any advice. Thank you very much.

I would change it to "as I do for John". Refering to 'up to this point', the present perfect is great; refering to 'now', I'd use t

Consider this revision:

I have rarely felt as confident in giving a supportive speech as I have for John.

Or possibly:


I have rarely felt so confident in giving a supportive speech as I have for John.

Hi,

I have rarely felt as confident to give a supporting speech as I have for John.

It's the 'for John' that makes me a little uncomfortable here. I think the structure is one of those that calls for balance. 'I feel as confident about doing this as about doing that

Hi All,

I think Clive is right, particularly if all the reader has is the original sentence without a surrounding context.

Clive, what do you think of 'supportive' versus 'supporting'? Are they pretty much the same?

Hi Davkett,

Thanks for your support.

I think the suffix '-ive' really relates to character (tendency or nature). We see that in words like 'talkative'. And that's why you win an award as Best Supporting Actor. You actually helped the other actors.

Best Supportive Actor would be one who was always saying things to the other actors like 'Wow, you did that really well, you'

So, Clive, you feel that what consitutes the speaker's feeling of confidence here is not so much what the speaker feels he can actually say in the speech, but what his mere speaking-presence means for the occasion?

Don't lawyers of the court occasionally find that 'supporting witnesses' end up giving testimony harmful to their clients. And don't 'supporting actors' sometimes ruin a film

Hi again,

I hope you don't mind if I highlight parts of what you wrote, just to make it easier to reply.

what consitutes the speaker's feeling of confidence here is not so much what the speaker feels he can actually say in the speech, but what his mere speaking-presence means for the occasion? Yeah, I guess I agree with th

Still, it's good to try to be accurate and it's fun to try and split a few hairs now and again, isn't it?

Yes, it is. And I aways appreciate your comments. (Even if you are 'overseas' from Philadelphia.)

I appreciate all of your insightful comments. I have further inputs and questions.

I agree with your correction. I was thinking more in the context of feeling confident to give a supporting speech for someone.

"Give a supporting speech in support of John" is good, but since there's no need to state that a supporting speech is in support of someone, is there a better way t

Hi RIP,

Yes, instead of "Give a supporting speech in support of John", you could just Give a speech in support of John or give a speech to support John.

Further, how would you describe the difference between feeling confident to give the speech and feeling confident about giving the speech?

The gram