The meaning of ‘nothing but’ in English

by Jakub Marian

Tip: Are you a non-native English speaker? I have just finished creating a Web App for people who enjoy learning by reading. Make sure to check it out; there's a lot of free content.

The meaning of “nothing but” in English is closely related to the usage of “but” in all/anything/everything but, which is more idiomatic, however. “But” in the expression “nothing but” means “except”, i.e. “nothing but” is just a more emphatic way of saying “nothing except”, “only”; for example

We could see nothing but fog.
He causes nothing but trouble.

which means the same as

We could see nothing except fog.
He causes only trouble.

By the way, have you already seen my brand new web app for non-native speakers of English? It's based on reading texts and learning by having all meanings, pronunciations, grammar forms etc. easily accessible. It looks like this:

0