{"id":1119,"date":"2013-12-12T19:01:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T01:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:28:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:28:26","slug":"dont-blur-fine-distinctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/effective-writing\/dont-blur-fine-distinctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Blur Fine Distinctions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If Helen offers Andr\u00e9 food, but Andr\u00e9 has just eaten, he will say, \u201cThank you, but I\u2019m not really hungry.\u201d If Helen persists, Andr\u00e9 might say the same words in a different order: \u201cThank you, but I\u2019m really not hungry,\u201d which lets her know in a civil way that she\u2019s not going to change his mind. When you think about it, there is a clear-cut difference between <em>not really<\/em> and <em>really not<\/em> that is well worth preserving.<\/p>\n<p>Word order matters. Many people who mean to say <em>Don\u2019t just stand there<\/em> now say instead <em>Just don\u2019t stand there<\/em>. But the two statements mean different things. <em>Don\u2019t just stand there<\/em> means \u201cDon\u2019t stand there doing nothing.\u201d <em>Just don\u2019t stand there<\/em> means \u201cDon\u2019t stand there for any reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The meaning of <em>just<\/em> depends on its placement in a sentence, especially when it is accompanied by negative adverbs such as <em>not<\/em> or <em>never<\/em>, or negative verbs such as <em>don\u2019t<\/em> or <em>wouldn\u2019t<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Careless speakers these days blur the distinction between phrases like <em>not just<\/em> and <em>just not<\/em>. Traditionally, <em>not just<\/em> means \u201cnot merely\u201d or \u201cnot only,\u201d and <em>just not<\/em> means \u201csimply not\u201d or \u201cdefinitely not.\u201d <em>He\u2019s a trusted adviser, not just a friend<\/em> means \u201cHe\u2019s both my adviser and my friend.\u201d Whereas <em>He\u2019s a trusted adviser, just not a friend<\/em> means something quite different: \u201cI trust his advice, but he\u2019s no friend of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saying \u201cjust not\u201d when we mean \u201cnot just\u201d could lead to misunderstanding, embarrassment, even hurt feelings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop Quiz<\/strong><br \/>\nMatch each of the first four sentences with its closest paraphrase in sentences A-D.<\/p>\n<p>1. I just wouldn\u2019t leave.<br \/>\n2. I wouldn\u2019t just leave.<br \/>\n3. I can\u2019t really concentrate in here.<br \/>\n4. I really can\u2019t concentrate in here.<\/p>\n<p>A. This place interferes with my concentration.<br \/>\nB. This place makes concentrating impossible for me.<br \/>\nC. If I were to leave, I\u2019d tell you first.<br \/>\nD. There is no possibility that I\u2019d leave.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1-D, 2-C, 3-A, 4-B<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Helen offers Andr\u00e9 food, but Andr\u00e9 has just eaten, he will say, \u201cThank you, but I\u2019m not really hungry.\u201d If Helen persists, Andr\u00e9 might say the same words in a different order: \u201cThank you, but I\u2019m really not hungry,\u201d which lets her know in a civil way that she\u2019s not going to change his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-verbs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}