1

The following is a question in my book where I am given 3 options from which I have to select one which may improve my question sentence

In the absence of your support, he would have lost the election.

Options are

  1. But for your support he would have lost the election.

  2. He would have lost the election, if you had not supported him

I think both of the options are same and I cannot distinguish between them.

Improve this question
1
  • He does nothing but ask questions - but = except. In your first example, but for = without (if he hadn't had your support he would have lost). Both your alternatives are fine, and they mean the same thing, so if that's being presented as a multi-choice test question with only one answer implied to be correct, it's a stupid test.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 7, 2020 at 11:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

I agree that the meanings are the same.

Sentence 2 has an unnecessary comma. Maybe that's why it's considered wrong.

Sentence 1 is more like the original since the clauses are in the same order, and "But for..." is a direct replacement for "In the absence of..."

Improve this answer
4
  • But in my book and on many websites 2 sentence is correct
    – Kshitij Singh
    Commented Jul 7, 2020 at 10:30
  • google.com/…
    – Kshitij Singh
    Commented Jul 7, 2020 at 10:31
  • @KshitijSingh I think it's correct too. The comma isn't necessary, but the sentence isn't wrong. But the sentence with "But for..." is still the better choice.
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Commented Jul 7, 2020 at 10:41
  • Possibly they object to beginning a sentence with 'but'. But I don't have a problem with it.
    – richardb
    Commented Jul 7, 2020 at 12:29

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .