Lovely as she was, I had to leave. Does this make sense?

Question

why is there no "As" in the front?Also, can you recommend a good book on entymology. i want to learn greek/latin roots.if you could recommend one for junior high level and one for adults. Thank you.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Anonymous why is there no "As" in the front?

I believe this is a casual use.

Sorry about the books.

Anonymous · Answer

So the sentence makes sense? in formal writing, I should include "as"? Or is it ok to leave it out?

Thanks.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. I think I saw some sentences with what I think is a similar phrasal pattern as the one by the poster who started this thread. Can you please tell me why there is no "as" here?

eg,

It is not (as?) bad as the dog next door.

Thank you for your anticipated help.

Avangi · Answer

<< Lovely as she was, I had to leave. >>

<< It is not (as?) bad as the dog next door. >>

I've been dragging my feet on this. The omission of "as" is more offensive in some cases than in others.

"This dog is bad as they come." This is almost a fixed expression. There's "formal" and there's "very formal." I probably wouldn't use it in a "very formal" situation.

I would consider "It's not bad as the dog next door" to be very low register.

"Lovely as she was" is fine for semi-formal. I'd probably add the second "as" for very formal use.

"Strange as it seems" and "strange though it may seem" are sort of fixed expressions, and would be okay for formal usage, I'd say.

Some of these have a feeling more like the "though" usage in which only one of them is used.
(Tell me what part of speech "though" is in this case.)
Lovely though she was, I had to leave.
Lovely though she may / might have been, I had to leave.

The difference between "as" and "though" seems to be the implied comparative. How lovely was she? She was so lovely that - - - She was as lovely as - - - -
With "though," she's just "lovely." The OP seems almost like this - almost parenthetical.

Even with "As lovely as she was," there's no actual comparison. Still it seems to move her higher on some scale than "Lovely though she was."

Khoff · Answer

I have no book recommendations, but I do want to point out that "entymology" is not correct.

ETYMOLOGY is the study of word origins.

ENTOMOLOGY is the study of insects.

MichalS · Answer

Hel-lo

Quoting Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

- used to say that in spite of sth being true, what follows is also true

SYN though:
Happy as they were, there was something missing. Try as he might (=however hard he tried), he couldn’t open the door.

Quoting LDCE:
- though:
Unlikely as it might seem, I'm tired too.
Try as she might, Sue couldn't get the door open.
As popular as he is, the President hasn't always managed to have his own way.

These are fixed expressions where you can use both as/though interchangeably.

Avangi · Answer

Thanks, MichalS, this is terrfic! Right on!

On this basis, I should think it would be fine for Anon to use "Lovely as she was, I had to leave." in "very" formal applications.

The question remains, if we say, "As lovely as she was," does that make here more lovely than would a single "as"?

MichalS · Answer

Hi Avangi,
No problem

I'm glad I helped.

AvangiOn this basis, I should think it would be fine for Anon to use "Lovely as she was, I had to leave." in "very" formal applications.

I don't think you talk about such things in "very" formal applications.

This sentence seems to have some informal connotations to me

But you're definitely right that it sounds kind of formal.

AvangiThe question remains, if we say, "As lovely as she was," does that make here more lovely than would a single "as"?

If so, we could reach a contradiction here.
I mean, If she'd been even more lovely, Anon surely wouldn't have left.

Michal

Anonymous · Answer

Thnaks for your help.

One last thing. So if I say, "as lovely as she was, I had to leave," does the meaning change at all vs. the original sentence?

Thanks.

MichalS · Answer

Even if so, then not much. They're pretty much the same.

Lovely as she was, I had to leave. Does this make sense?

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