If anything

raymondaliasapollyonMember

Hi,

Are the following dialogues OK?

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Dialogue 1:

A: I don't understand why the school conferred the scholarship on a bad student like John.
B: John is not a bad student. If anything, he's one of the best students I've ever seen.

Dialogue 2:

A: I don't understand why the school conferred the scholarship on a bad student like John.
B: John is a good student. If anything, he's one of the best students I've ever seen.

Dialogue 3:

A: I don't understand why the school conferred the scholarship on a bad student like John.
B: If anything, he's one of the best students I've ever seen.
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I'd appreciate your help.

3/10/235:33 PM

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Gustavo, Co-ModeratorProfessor of Legal and Financial Translation

Hi, Raymond,

Only the third example does not seem to work very well, because it lacks some expression to establish a difference from the other person's opinion, perhaps "well" or "actually," or even "I don't agree" before a new sentence starting with "If anything":

Dialogue 4:

A: I don't understand why the school conferred the scholarship on a bad student like John.
B: Well, if anything, he's one of the best students I've ever seen.
B': Actually, if anything, he's one of the best students I've ever seen.
B'': I don't agree. If anything, he's one of the best students I've ever seen.

Concerning dialogues (1) and (2), I find (1) to be slightly more emphatic—one would naturally stress "good" for the response in (2) to sound as contradicting the other person's view. And in (2) we could easily replace "if anything" with "actually" or "as a matter of fact," to mean "not only good, but one of the best."

3/12/236:13 AM