A sentence from Economist that really confused me.
"Much as the car and the clock did in their time, so today the smartphone is poised to enrich lives, reshape entire industries and transform societies"
How do you explain "much as" and "so". These two grammatical words almost drove me crazy.

Question

A sentence from Economist that really confused me.
"Much as the car and the clock did in their time, so today the smartphone is poised to enrich lives, reshape entire industries and transform societies"
How do you explain "much as" and "so". These two grammatical words almost drove me crazy.

Answer

much as = just as/just lke

so = to the same extent (used in comparisons)