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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

English

Take this sentence :

"To discriminate my
feeling towards you from those
towards the other is all but possible."

What does it mean?
Does it mean that it is everything except possible, implying that it is the compliment of possible i.e. impossible.

And though this might make no sense to the sentence, it can also mean, according to the dictionary, that it is almost possible.

Is the sentence badly constructed?

What about the same thing used in this sentence :

"What use has it when all is but pretensions
and outward colouring."
  

Top answer

" This doesn't seem to make much sense. Are you sure it shouldn't be " To discriminate my feeling towards you from those towards the other is all but impossible "? All but...

— Blue Jay

  • " This doesn't seem to make much sense.
  • Are you sure it shouldn't be " To discriminate my feeling towards you from those towards the other is all but impossible "?
  • All but...
  • in a context like this does mean almost , but it is more commonly seen paired with a negative.
  • " This is a different usage.
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2 Answers
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Anonymous"To discriminate my feeling towards you from those towards the other is all but possible."
This doesn't seem to make much sense. Are you sure it shouldn't be "To discriminate my feeling towards you from those towards the other is all but impossible"?
All but... in a context like this does mean almost, but it is
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AnonymousIs the sentence badly constructed?
Yes. ... discriminate ... feeling (singular) ... from those (plural) ... doesn't seem very logical.

"the other" is not well-defined. Maybe it's something philosophical, referring to all other people?

Supposing you change it to feelings, use 'others' instead of 'the other', and take '
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