Learn English – the difference between “as much as” and “much as”

differencephrase-meaning

What is the difference between the following sentences?

As much as I admire him for his sterling qualities, I cannot excuse him for being unfair to his friends.

Much as I admire him for his sterling qualities, I cannot excuse him for being unfair to his friends.

Best Answer

They describe almost the opposite relationship between the two things.

As much as I admire him for his sterling qualities, I cannot excuse him for being unfair to his friends.

Here, "as much as" means "even though". Essentially, it means that my admiring someone would make you think I could excuse them, but I cannot. That is, it shows a conflict between two truths. Since these things do conflict, we might excuse unfairness from those we admire, this makes sense.

Much as I admire him for his sterling qualities, I cannot excuse him for being unfair to his friends.

Here, "much as" means "in about the same way". Essentially, this means that I admire him and in the same way, cannot excuse his unfairness. Since these two things don't really seem equivalent, it's hard to see how this would make sense.