What does this strange sentence mean?
That terrible job will by itself destroy your mental health.
What does this "by itself" mean?
Is this grammatical?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat does this strange sentence mean?
That terrible job will by itself destroy your mental health.
What does this "by itself" mean?
Is this grammatical?
"by oneself" means alone, on one's own, either
with nobody else present
or
with nobody else's help
For example:
I was sad because I was by myself (no one was with me)
I did my homework by myself (with no help)
As we are talking about a job, not a person, we use "by itself", meaning on its own, with nothing else "helping" it.
So "That terrible job will by itself destroy your mental health" means that the job alone, without help from anything else, will destroy your mental health.
NOTE
The original question had the phrase as
That terrible will by itself destroy your mental health.
No, that sentence is not grammatical, unless "terrible" is read as a noun, which seems highly unusual.
I can see two ways this sentence would make sense, but the two ways imply a completely different meaning. You will have to provide more context to know which of the two is applicable:
Paranoia is a terrible thing. That terrible thing will, by itself, destroy your mental health.
The will is a terrible thing. That terrible will, by itself, destroys your mental health.
You will notice that in both cases I interpret "terrible" as an adjective. In the first case, I added something for the adjective to modify (paranoia), and I read the verb in your sentence as "will destroy".
In the second case, I interpreted "will" as a noun, and I read the verb as "destroys.
In both cases, I added commas around "by itself" to make the sentence more clear.
I would have guessed the author meant the second option, meaning that one's will can, by itself (without help from anything else) destroy a person's mental health. "Destroy" does need an s then.
After the edit, it turns out that the first interpretation was the correct one. Something will, without the help of anything else, accomplish to destroy your mental health.
It's grammatical, though it's a little awkward.
"By itself" is being used as an adverb to modify destroy. In other words, even if everything else about your life was totally peaceful and sane, this job would still drive you crazy.
Sentences starting with a that usually looks like this:
That terrible job by itself will destroy your mental health is inevitable
Since the last part is missing, we must assume that it is one of those sentences that lacks the complete structure, as seen in a conversation.
Things turns out positive.
by itself could mean terrible job . Look at this sentence:
My work by itself is my own reward
This implies that no other reward is necessary, but the work itself provides satisfaction.