I like him NONE THE WORSE for being outspoken! So what does "none the worse" mean?
By narsha
@narsha (466)
2 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
23 Sep 13
"Worse" is the comparative of "bad".
"None the ..." plus a comparative adjective is an idiomatic way of saying that the attribute or action described has not changed the situation.
"None the worse" is exactly equivalent to "not any worse". Another way of making the statement above might be:
"I do not like him any [the] worse for being outspoken"
"His outspokenness does not change my liking for him."
Another, similar idiom is "None too ..." plus an adjective
Examples of using these idioms:
"Jane was none the worse for her fall." (= she was not injured).
"John worked hard but he was none the richer for it."
"The restaurant was none too clean." (= "was not very clean", with the implication that it was really quite dirty)
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@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
23 Sep 13
@narsha No, the sentence is actually saying rather the reverse:
"In spite of the fact that he is outspoken, I still like him."
In other words, the speaker implies that he/she doesn't like 'outspokenness' in general but that, in this case, it doesn't affect his/her liking for this person.
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@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
23 Sep 13
@narsha Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that "nonetheless" and "nevertheless" have become words in their own right (notice how they are often printed as one word) which can be used in the same way as "However" - as a connective adverb used to avoid the conjunction 'But' at the beginning of a sentence.
"However" and "Nevertheless" are more commonly used than "Nonetheless" ('nevertheless' is also older, appearing in writing in the 14th Century, whereas 'nonetheless' only appears as a single word in the 16th Century).
Strictly speaking, 'Nevertheless' should be used when there is an element of time involved, whereas 'Nonetheless' implies the presence of something. However, 'nevertheless' is generally preferred, regardless of this, probably because it has a more pleasing rhythm and the sounds of the two phonemes together /n-dh/ seem awkward to an English speaker.
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