“Anything but”, “All but”
The idioms "anything but" and "all but" have confused me as long as I can remember. Now I know why: they have nearly opposite meanings.
- Cambridge ALD definitions for all but, anything but
- Bruce Todd tries to explain the idioms
- An English test for Japanese students (charset: Shift_JIS):
13. That boy is ( ) a great trouble to his parents.
A. all but B. anything but C. not but D. nothing but - An English test for Chinese students:
27. It was such a dangerous scene: the boy was ____ drowned in the river just now.
A. nothing but B. all but C. anything but D. but that
Google searches used: "anything but" "all but" idioms (lots of results, mostly noise), "all but * anything but" (only 16 results, but some were relevent).
These idioms do not appear in any of the idiom dictionaries I have:
- NTC's American Idioms Dictionary
- NTC's Slang American Style (generally the most useful of the three)
- Betty Kirkpatrick's Clichés
September 14th, 2003 at 6:08 am
You’re right, “anything but” and “all but” can be quite confusing!
Fortunately, I think the answer to the Japanese quiz is neither of the two.
September 14th, 2003 at 10:48 am
heehee, i need to send this english test for chinese speakers to my old roommates in taiwan…