for an old guy,..

[JiriLindovsky]

I read a phrase:"for an old guy, you're not bad-looking".
Now, can I say?:for the fact that you hadn't enough money your house look nice.

BTW how would you search that in dictionary?

thanks in advance, Jiri

[emsr2d2]

I read a phrase:"for an old guy, you're not bad-looking".
Now, can I say?:for the fact that you hadn't enough money your house look nice.

BTW how would you search that in dictionary?

thanks in advance, Jiri

You can't search whole phrases in a dictionary, so I wouldn't.

For a poor guy, you have a nice house!

This construction usually starts with "For a ..." and is followed by an adjective and then a person, then a fact which is surprising once you know the contents of the first half of the sentence.

For a short girl, she can jump really high.
For an obese guy, he can run very fast.
For a one-armed man, he's very good at boxing.

[AndrewTheElephant]

In spite of the lack of money, your house looks nice.

Don't know how to look for it. We were just taught to use this word-combination in this sense at the university.

[emsr2d2]

For the lack of money, your house look nice.

Don't know how to look for it. We were just taught to use this word-combination in this sense at the university.

This sounds a little unnatural to me. I wouldn't start with "For the lack of..." If I wanted to use a similar construction, I would say:

Considering your lack of money, your house looks nice.
Given that you don't have much money, your house looks nice.