It was an interesting move pregnant with (=full of) unforeseen circumstances

Question

It was an interesting move pregnant with (=full of) unforeseen circumstances, not least the concern and misunderstanding to which it gave rise locally.

1: What does not least mean? Is it different from not the least which means not at all?

2: I would have written which it gave rise to locally. Would it be wrong and which form of the two is more idiomatic?

Philip · Accepted Answer

1. the concern and misunderstanding are not the least of the circumstances.

2. Your example is very common and very idiomatic; the original is the extremely formal way of expressing the same thing (following what some consider the somewhat outdated 'rule' of not ending a phrase with a preposition). [This, of course, is a whole other topic; it could also be argued that 'give rise to' is simply a verb phrase that doesn't really include a preposition.]

Jackson6612 · Answer

It was an interesting move pregnant with (=full of) unforeseen circumstances, not least the concern and misunderstanding to which it gave rise locally.

1: What does not least mean? Is it different from not the least which means not at all?
2: I would have written which it gave rise to locally. Would it be wrong and which form of the two is more idiomatic?

Philip1. the concern and misunderstanding are not the least of the circumstances.
2. Your example is very common and very idiomatic; the original is the extremely formal way of expressing the same thing (following what some consider the somewhat outdated 'rule' of not ending a phrase with a preposition). [This, of course, is a whole other topic; it could also be argued that 'give rise to' is simply a verb phrase that doesn't really include a preposition.

Hi Philip,

1: What does ''the concern and misunderstandings are not the least of the circumstances''?

2: In the original is the extremely formal way I would have used ''a'' in place of the. Couldn't ''a'' be used there?

3: You said following what some...ending a phrase with a preposition. Perhaps you meant to say following what some...ending a sentence with a preposition. The original sentence was not ending with a preposition. The phrase which I proposed doesn't end with a preposition either, it ends with locally. Therefore, I also followed the rule of not ending the ending the sentence with a preposition.

Thanks

Philip · Answer

To which it gave rise to ~ to which it gave rise = that's the question of the placement of the preposition (adding locally doesn't change it).

Either a or the.

are not the least of the circumstances = they are important circumstances, not to be ignored

Jackson6612 · Answer

I knew in the past it wasn't considered correct to end a sentence with a preposition. I didn't know that this rule also applied to the phrases. Would you, please, comment on this?

It was an interesting move pregnant with (=full of) unforeseen circumstances

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