all but certain to win...
Wouldn't that mean there's no certainty he'd win? Might be my English but it feels wrong...?
Shouldn't it be
all but certain to ~~loose~~ lose
this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
60 points (92.9% liked)
World News
39023 readers
2515 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News [email protected]
Politics [email protected]
World Politics [email protected]
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
It's written correctly. "All but" in the sense used here means almost. "All but certain" means a hair's breadth from absolute certainty.
(Also, "lose" is the word you were looking for; not "loose".)
Oooh. Damn. I must've written some weird texts then lmao
As a native English speaker I fully agree that your intuition makes sense and I've also always hated this phrase because it does sound backwards.
Thank you!! 😅
No, it means he's as certain to win as possible without a guarantee
Also as a non native English speaker, I used to find "all but" super weird too. Particularly since there's also "everything but" where the words mean very similar things but the meaning is exactly the opposite.
Contranyms have got to be super annoying when learning another language:
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/
Not unique to English by any means, not sure if it has any more than usual for a language, but still annoying I'm sure.
I've never even thought about "all but" and "everything but" having basically opposite meanings. And then there's "anything but" as well.
Ah, so it wasn't just me. I understand written English, but those headlines always hit me. Full of metaphors and strange* locutions. I feel like I should be utterly shocked by the title but I can't even get what it is stating.
"Russian officials hold PR party that allows them to claim they elected putin, ignore any exploding apartment buildings you see, comrade."
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Putin, 71, is running as an independent, but he retains tight control over Russia’s political system that he has established during 24 years in power.
With prominent critics who could challenge him either jailed or living abroad and most independent media banned, his re-election in the March 15-17 presidential vote looks all but assured.
With his approval ratings hovering around 80 percent, Putin is far more popular than United Russia, which is widely seen as a part of the Kremlin-controlled state bureaucracy rather than a political force.
The Central Election Commission formally cleared Putin for the race after reviewing 315,000 signatures gathered by his campaign from all 89 regions of Russia.
Thousands of Russians have lined up across the country to leave their signatures in support of Nadezhdin’s candidacy to allow him to qualify for the race, an unusual show of opposition sympathies in the rigidly controlled political landscape that raised a challenge for the Kremlin.
Under a constitutional reform that he engineered, Putin is eligible to seek two more six-year terms, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.
The original article contains 382 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 53%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!