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Jeff_999 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

So much ... as

0 "The sale of Alaska was not 01i00 so much an American coup as 02i00 a matter of expediency for an imperial Russia that was short of cash and unable to defend its own continental coastline." 02br
02br
00I know what the sentence is saying. But "not so much an American coup as a matter of" is a little hard to understand. Could you please tell me what "01i00 much 02i00" modifies? 02br
00And please give me some more examples (like "so much + noun. + as + noun."). 0-
  

Top answer

0 X is not so much Y as (it is) Z. 02br 00X is Y to some degree. 02br 00X is Z to some degree.

— CalifJim

  • 0 X is not so much Y as (it is) Z.
  • 02br 00X is Y to some degree.
  • 02br 00X is Z to some degree.
  • , X is Z more than X is Y.
  • 02br 02br 00What comes to mind first is that X is Z, even though, to a lesser extent, X is Y as well.
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3 Answers
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0 X is not so much Y as (it is) Z. 02br
00X is Y to some degree. 02br
00X is Z to some degree. 02br
00But X is Y to a degree less than X is Z, i.e., X is Z more than X is Y. 02br
02br
00What comes to mind first is that X is Z, even though, to a lesser extent, X is Y as well. 02br
00While X is Y, that's not as important as the fa
0
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0Thank you sooooooo much. 050010id5
0
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0Your comments were not so much an answer as a kindly enlightenment to me. 050010id5
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