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Is the meaning of these sentences the same?

yuri
"I was anything but safe." and " I was never safe."

Why does "anything but" make the same sense as "never" ?
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For learning: English
Base language: Japanese
Category: Uncategorized

  • Asked by yuri 6 month(s) ago
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- "I was anything but safe."
'anything but' doesn't mean 'never'
"But" is not a conjunction here. Instead, it is a preposition that means 'except' and 'apart from'.
So 'anything but' means 'definitely not':
'I was anything but safe' = 'I was not safe' = 'I was unsafe' = 'I was NOTHING but unsafe'


Other examples:
'This problem was anything but easy' = It wasn't easy
'The hotel was anything but cheap' = it wasn't cheap
'I hate fish. I can eat anything except/but fish' = I don't eat fish

- I was never safe':
'never' is an adverb here that is used to emphasise a negative statement instead of 'not'.

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Jura
2
Hi, anything but is an idiom meaning:
By no means; not at all: example I was anything but happy about going.

Definition of never: Not ever; not at any time; at no time, whether past, present, or future.
The second sentence has more emphasis implying that I was never safe at any time.
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Cherry
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2
Hello Yuri,

" I was anything but safe".

Here it is situational, in a particular situation this person could have any feeling but not that of being safe specifically.It emphasizes that the feeling is opposite of what the others might expect. The other could be asking him " Were you safe then?".

" I was never safe"

It is more of a general statement indicating that this person didn't feel safe at any time nor in any circumstances. He could have been asked "Were you ever safe?"
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Neal
1
Hi Yuri
I agree with Cherry here; "anything but safe" is more a relative and slightly weaker statement in this context, against the more definitive and straightforward "never safe"
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