Re: Sore mo ii desu, ne.

chance wrote:
"Ben Finney" <bignose+hates-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote


"Very little if any"

=> "If there is any at all, it is not much"

=> Non-committal on whether any exists, but only claiming that it
is *either* little *or* none.

"Not a bit"

=> None


If you hear, 'Very little if any white about him',
what will be your take?

*My* take would be something like "He's not standing in the snow after all!"

If "any" is changed to "anything," then it's still odd to me, but I would understand it (at least if said in the US) as "He's probably a tourist from Africa."

[...]
However, in the final analysis, don't the two versions
of 'take' lead practically to an 'unequivocal' negation:
'There isn't whatever white about him.'?

If "probably" is the same as "definitely."

Bart
.

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