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Updated on
28 Jul 2015
- Japanese
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English (US)
Question about English (US)
What is the difference between no happier and none the happier ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between no happier and none the happier ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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29 Jul 2015
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You may need to start looking at this outside of traditional grammar rules. Maybe if I rephrase it, it may help.
"I broke the CD he lent me but I quickly replaced it so he's not aware that I broke it."
That's an awkward sentence but colloquially you can replace "he's not aware that I broke it" with "he's none the wiser". "Wiser" here shouldn't be thought of as a comparative adjective in the standard sense, but instead as one piece of a three-word phrase that makes no sense when you try to take each word in isolation.
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- English (UK)
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They're basically the same. "None the happier" is a bit more colloquial I think.
"He's got all this money but he's no happier."
"He's got all this money but he's none the happier for it."
There's no real difference in meaning between those two sentences.
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Thanks.
About "no happier", my unerstanding is that "happier" shows there is some gap between A and B, and "no" shows the gap is "zero".
I'm less good at unerstanding "none" than "no". "none" seems to be a noun unlike "no", so it doesn't seem to be modifying the word after it. Sorry, grammatical understanding helps me actually use the expression.
About "no happier", my unerstanding is that "happier" shows there is some gap between A and B, and "no" shows the gap is "zero".
I'm less good at unerstanding "none" than "no". "none" seems to be a noun unlike "no", so it doesn't seem to be modifying the word after it. Sorry, grammatical understanding helps me actually use the expression.
- English (UK)
- English (US)
That's right, "no happier" just means there's no increase in happiness.
"None the happier" is just one of those weird colloquial phrases that doesn't really obey standard grammar rules. The most common construction is " none the wiser" which means someone didn't know about something.
"I broke the CD he lent me but I quickly replaced it so he's none the wiser."
Other than that phrase it doesn't get used too often.
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Oh, That's an interesting expression to know. Thanks.
By the way, what or whom is he compared with in the sentence?
By the way, what or whom is he compared with in the sentence?
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I'm not sure what you mean sorry. Do you mean in my example sentence with "none the wiser"?
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Right.
In case of "no happier", "He's got all this money, but he's no happier (than how he was before he got the money). " In other words, where is the gap in the sentence of "none the happier (than …)"?
In case of "no happier", "He's got all this money, but he's no happier (than how he was before he got the money). " In other words, where is the gap in the sentence of "none the happier (than …)"?
- English (UK)
- English (US)
You may need to start looking at this outside of traditional grammar rules. Maybe if I rephrase it, it may help.
"I broke the CD he lent me but I quickly replaced it so he's not aware that I broke it."
That's an awkward sentence but colloquially you can replace "he's not aware that I broke it" with "he's none the wiser". "Wiser" here shouldn't be thought of as a comparative adjective in the standard sense, but instead as one piece of a three-word phrase that makes no sense when you try to take each word in isolation.
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- English (UK)
- English (US)
If you really want to break it down, you could look at it like this. Because I replaced the CD without him knowing, he does not have the knowledge that his CD broke in the first place, so he's "no wiser" of what's going on.
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Oh, you mean "what's going on is beyond him", right?
Thank you very much, contingency40. I appreciate your tolerance, and your last comment has finally broken my question down.
Thank you very much, contingency40. I appreciate your tolerance, and your last comment has finally broken my question down.
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