Some of???

Question

Here there is a sentence like this:
" The rich green mountains and valleys make these provinces 'some of 'the most beautiful in Canada."
Here , what does 'some of' mean ? Or can I modify this sentence like this:
"......................... make some of these provinces the most beautiful in Canada."
Thank you if you can give any information about this.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Your modification won't mean the same thing because the original says that the mountains and valleys make (all of) these provinces some of the most beautiful in Canada.

The original means that (all of) the provinces under discussion are not the only provinces which are the most beautiful. They are only a subset of the provinces which are the most beautiful.

How are you at set theory? That's the sort of thing you need to get the difference!

Suppose we say the entire list of the provinces of Canada is: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Suppose we are discussing certain provinces - the ones with those rich green mountains and valleys. Suppose these are B, E, and F.

Now suppose that the most beautiful provinces are A, B, E, F, and G.

Do you see that the provinces we are discussing are some (but not all) of the most beautiful provinces, that is, B, E, and F are some (but not all) of A, B, E, F, and G?

On the other hand, with "make some of these provinces the most beautiful" we are saying that some (but not all) of B, E, and F are in the set A, B, E, F, and G, which clearly can't be true if the original statement is true.

Well, that was long-winded, but hopefully it helped!

Jacklong · Answer

Thank you, CalifJim.
It was not long-winded. I am quite clear about it now . Thanks again!

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