{"id":3809,"date":"2016-08-09T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=3809"},"modified":"2016-08-15T16:11:30","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T23:11:30","slug":"toefl-tuesday-weird-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-weird-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: Weird phrases with &#8220;but&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have you ever been confused by the word \u201cbut?\u201d This is a conjunction which usually means \u201chowever\u201d or \u201cyet.\u201d However, students are often confused when \u201cbut\u201d is used in idiomatic phrases. These phrases cannot be translated literally, and they can be difficult to understand! That\u2019s why I\u2019ve decided to make a video that explains the meaning of the different phrases that the word \u201cbut\u201d can be used in. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Weird phrases with &quot;but&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XO8WNWy4M1g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><b>\u201cNothing but\u201d <\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This phrase means \u201conly.\u201d Let\u2019s say that we have a friend called Amy, and she just started a new job. We ask her how her new boss is, and Amy says <\/span><b>nothing but<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> nice things about her boss. This means that Amy said only nice things about her new boss. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice that the phrase \u201cnothing but\u201d is often followed by an adjective. In the example above, \u201cnothing but\u201d is followed by \u201cnice,\u201d which is an adjective. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>\u201cAll but\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The phrase \u201call but\u201d has two different meanings. You can tell which meaning it has by looking at the words that come after \u201call but.\u201d When the phrase is followed by an adjective or a verb, \u201call but\u201d means \u201calmost.\u201d For example, we could say \u201cdeserts are <\/span><b>all but<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lifeless.\u201d This means that deserts are almost lifeless, but not quite. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second meaning of \u201call but\u201d is \u201ceverything except.\u201d This meaning is used when \u201call but\u201d is followed by a noun (or a group of words that serves as a noun). For example, we could say \u201c<\/span><b>all but <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the best adapted plants die in a desert.\u201d The phrase \u201cthe best adapted plants\u201d serves as a noun here, so \u201call but\u201d means \u201ceverything except.\u201d So this sentence means that all plants, except for the best adapted ones, die in a desert.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>\u201cAnything but\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, we have \u201canything but.\u201d This phrase is also placed before an adjective, and it means \u201cnot.\u201d So if we say \u201clearning idioms is <\/span><b>anything but<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> easy,\u201d it means that learning idioms is not easy. However, I hope that this TOEFL Tuesday video makes it a at least little easier for you! \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been confused by the word \u201cbut?\u201d This is a conjunction which usually means \u201chowever\u201d or \u201cyet.\u201d However, students are often confused when \u201cbut\u201d is used in idiomatic phrases. These phrases cannot be translated literally, and they can be difficult to understand! That\u2019s why I\u2019ve decided to make a video that explains the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13604],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocab","tag-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TOEFL Tuesday: Weird phrases with &quot;but&quot; - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-weird-phrases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Weird phrases with &quot;but&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever been confused by the word \u201cbut?\u201d This is a conjunction which usually means \u201chowever\u201d or \u201cyet.\u201d However, students are often confused when \u201cbut\u201d is used in idiomatic phrases. 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