'BY no means' and ' not by any means'

[zaed_salah]

Hi to all

I am glad to be back.

I have a question about this phrase; by no means.
in the dictionary it means; not at all, but I did not got, as in this sentnce:
"It is by no means certain that we'll finish the project by June"

Cany you explain it to me !!??


Thanks alot

[Tdol]

It means that there is a good chance that the project will not be finished.

[zaed_salah]

See this sentence;


'This was by no means used consistently' as I understand the sentence meant;
this was not used in the all situations.
And in the first sentence "It is by no means certain that we'll finish the project by June", I think the meaning will be; that we are not certain or we are not sure that we will finish the project by June.
So, the meaning of ' by no means in the dictionary is ; not at all, if we repalced in the last two sentences , we will get nagative meaning as I said ,

what do you think Tdol!!?,
actually I am still confusing.


Regards

[sheena55ro]

See this sentence;
'This was by no means used consistently' as I understand the sentence meant;
this was not used in the all situations.
And in the first sentence "It is by no means certain that we'll finish the project by June", I think the meaning will be; that we are not certain or we are not sure that we will finish the project by June.
So, the meaning of ' by no means in the dictionary is ; not at all, if we repalced in the last two sentences , we will get nagative meaning as I said ,
what do you think Tdol!!?,
actually I am still confusing.
Regards

The meaning of the sentence is : It is certain that we will not finish the project by June. "By no means" emphazises the idea of not being capable to finish the project by June, or
"We [undoubtedly] won`t be able to finish the project by June."/ There is no doubt : we cannot finish the project..."


Regards,

[zaed_salah]

Thank you very much Sheena

[waterluo]

by no means
In no sense; certainly not:could use to emphasize something
the simple meaning of the sentence is "It is not certain that ......."