Somebody help me with an English sentence which I can't understand well.
By narsha
@narsha (466)
December 17, 2013 5:01am CST
The sentence is "Rodney was a cheerful,elegant and gregarious if rather contentious man". So,I'm gonna ask that what does the "if rather" here mean? Somebody said that if equals to although,and rather equals to quite,so if rather equals to although quite,was he right? If not,can you mylotters tell me what's on your mind? Big thanks!
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4 responses
@cupkitties (7421)
• United States
17 Dec 13
Yes, "Although quite" can be used there. You could also say that " Rodney may be contentious at times, but he's usually a cheerful, elegant and gregarious man."
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@janeswang (1)
• Shenzhen, China
18 Dec 13
It is easy to understand your analysis, simple is the best.
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@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Dec 13
You could break the sentence down into the following simple statements:
"Rodney was a cheerful man."
"Rodney was an elegant man."
"Rodney was a gregarious man."
"Rodney was a rather contentious man."
The "if" contrasts the quality of "rather contentious" with the other qualities, so it is equivalent to "but" or "although" in this context. In other words, one would not normally associate the qualities of cheerfulness, elegance and gregariousness (which are all more or less 'positive' attributes) with contentiousness (which is usually considered 'negative'.
'Rather contentious' is less strong than 'quite contentious'. It usually means 'just a little bit contentious'. English uses many adverbs/adverb phrases to modify adjectives in a comparative manner and each has a slightly different effect. 'Rather contentious' indicates that Rodney had a tendency to disagree with people in a blunt or unpleasant manner from time to time. 'Quite contentious' would mean that he did so more frequently and 'very contentious' would mean that he was almost always prone to argue about things if he disagreed.
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