If for no other reason than that you can get a red rose, one should post a comment on LingQ forums.
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If for no other reason than that George Orwell wrote his essays in English, one ought to learn English.
(Edited)
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If for no other reason than that you can communicate with many people from all over the world, you should join LingQ.
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If for no other reason than that you can breathe fresh air with your lungs, you ought to go out and take a walk.
You could also try putting that clause at the end of a sentence if for no other reason than to hear how it changes the flow of the sentence!
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“I believe it if for no other reason than that it is unreasonable.” Is this phrase or logic well known?
I wrote the above sentence following Jingle’s advice.
What a funny name absurdism has!
“I believe it if for no other reason than that it is unreasonable.”
I wrote the above sentence to convey the meaning shown below.
“I believe it even if there is no other reason than that it is unreasonable.”
“Credo quia absurdum” or “absurdism”
“不合理ゆえに吾信ず”
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“The study is important and useful if for no other reason than that nothing comparable is available in any language.”
There is no comma before “if” in the sentence.
If you google “if for no other reason than” . . .
If for no other reason than that . . . - Open Forum in English - LingQ
2 days ago - You could also try putting that clause at the end of a sentence if for no other reason than to hear how it changes the flow of the sentence!
The above sentence is from this thread.
Are you wondering why there is no comma in those two examples? If that is so, the explanation is that a dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence is set off with a comma, but a dependent clause at the end of a sentence is not.
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Am I also right in thinking that “if for no other reason” constitutes a necessary part in the structure of the dependent clause at the end of the sentence, and so this should not be treated as an unnecessary or additional part with two commas at the beginning and at the end?
I suspect that some LingQ members were too smart to follow the so-called absurdist logic.
“But everybody had always burned over the land each spring, and they continued if only for the reason that their fathers had done it.”—TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
Yutaka,
I missed this post before. It’s good that you have tested out this expression, but it’s a rather stiff way of saying things. I’ll reply to each of your sample sentence posts with alternative expressions, starting with this one.
If nothing else, you should post a comment on LingQ so that you can get a rose.
I can’t think of a better reason to learn English than the fact that George Orwell wrote his essays in English.
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What better reason is there to join LingQ than being able to communicate with people from all over the world? (rhetorical question)
You should go outside and take a walk if nothing else so that you can get some fresh air.
I feel bad to see this fine (and even beautiful) expression blamed. With all due respect, it seems the fault of the speaker, not the expression.
As I see it, the original sentence sounds bad because of the unnecessary “that…” clause, not because of “if for no other reason than…”.
It talks about getting a rose, an implied intention or a wish, and the natural way to say it is using an infinitive.
You say “you want to get a rose”, not “you want that you can get a rose”.
Carrying this idea to the original sentence (and similar logic might apply to other example sentences mentioned):
“If for no other reason than that you can get a red rose, one should post a comment on LingQ forums.” => sounds unnatural.
“If for no other reason than to get a red rose, one should post a comment on LingQ forums” => sounds fine… even perfect.
To me, “if for no other reason than…” is the kind of expression that make a language rich and interesting.
It conveys a particular and exact notion in a nicely roundabout way. I hear it often in conversations, let alone in texts.
Paraphrasing it changes its connotation - it no longer conveys the same idea.
I’d be sad if expressions like this fall out of favor and we are left only with short, dumb phrases.
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I cannot agree more. Oddly enough, I read it in French the first time and it is pretty good as well. Having said that, “the clock was stricking 13” doesn’t make any sense in French (or at least is not stricking)!!!
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