2

A friend of mine told me that he always dislikes K country's food, and I said,

"I like what you dislike"

But I could see that he was so confused and was thinking what I meant, so I explained to him, "I don't like K country's food either. Then we both laughed.

I think the sentence, "I like what you dislike" can refer to
(1), I like the thing you dislike
(2), I like the action that you have done

He was not sure whether I was talking about (1) or (2), so he was confused.

Am I right?

2
  • Now, I am confused. I would have thought that you meant that you like the food. If you meant the second, I would have said "I like it that you dislike it, too!"
    – Msfolly
    Jan 10, 2016 at 16:20
  • Regarding food (thing), I'd use the first choice.
    – Schwale
    Jan 10, 2016 at 16:21

2 Answers 2

7

No.

The other person may be confused on if you're talking about if you like whatever he dislikes in general, or if you like the thing he dislikes that he is talking about right now.

X likes what Y dislikes

is parsed like this:

X likes [what Y dislikes].

It can never mean

I like the action that you have done.

and always means

I like the thing you dislike

For

I like the action that you have done

I would say any of the following:

Me too.

Same.

I dislike K's food too.

I dislike K's food as well.

I agree.

3

You are correct in your thinking.

I like what you dislike

Means, whatever your friend dislikes, you like, you are being contrarian to him.

I dislike what you dislike

Means you both dislike something

I like that you dislike
I like your dislike

Means you like he has a certain negative feeling about something, whether or not you also like it

I like that you dislike chocolate, it means more chocolate for me!

You could easily have said

I agree!

and he would not have been confused.

You must log in to answer this question.

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