Russia’s election commission on Monday formally registered President Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the March presidential election, a vote in which he’s all but certain to win another six-year term in office.
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.
In 2018, Putin also ran as an independent, snubbing the United Russia party that nominated him to run in 2012. 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.
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
looseloseIt’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!! 😅
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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.