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.
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.
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.