I found myself agreeing, if only for food.

[Adam Cruge]

I was reading a story book, where I found these.

Context: I don't like to go to RGD's house. But RGD invited me to his house for lunch. Then this line follows.

So, when RGD asked me to his house for lunch I found myself agreeing, if only for food.

What the "if" doing there? It can mean pretty same without "if"? Does "if" bears any special meaning here?

 

[Rover_KE]

Answered here:

I found myself agreeing, if only for food. - WordReference Forums

 

[Adam Cruge]

One more thing. I want tp write my own sentence using such kind of usage of "if".

It was if only for me you waited.

I wanted to mean: "It was for me only you waited".
Is this correct?

 

[kels]

I am not a teacher.


Quote:
So, when RGD asked me to his house for lunch I found myself agreeing, if only for food.
If the sentence is : "So, when RGD asked me to his house for lunch I found myself agreeing, only for food." It means that you are agreeing only for the food. But because the "if" is there, it shows that you are uncertain whether you are agreeing for food or for something else. Since you don't like to go to his house, and you are agreeing to go to his house, but the reason might not be for the food, it might then be because (my guess are) you want to see him, you like him, there is some other benefits for you if you agreed to go.

This is just what I think... it might not be right. I would want to know the explanation too.

 

[Tdol]

Is this correct?

Not to me.

 

[Adam Cruge]

Would you please explain this type of construction?

 

[bhaisahab]

You could say: "You waited, if only for me". Meaning: "you waited, even if the only reason you did so was for me".

 

[TheParser]

;QUOTE=Adam Cruge;624585]I was reading a story book, where I found these.

Context: I don't like to go to RGD's house. But RGD invited me to his house for lunch. Then this line follows.



What the "if" doing there? It can mean pretty same without "if"? Does "if" bears any special meaning here?[/QUOTE]


********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Mr. Cruge.

(1) Like everyone else, I have found your question most intriguing.

(2) I, too, hope that someone will find the answer.

(3) Until that happy moment, may I share my two cents?

(a) Everyone agrees that there exist the conjunctions

even if

even though

(b) One of my very good dictionaries defines if only as:

Even if for no other reason than

(c) Everyone agrees that ellipsis (deletion of words) is a

frequent practice in all languages . It is necessary to speed up

speech or to save paper in writing.

(d) Therefore, I propose that your kind of delightful sentence is an

ellipsis of something like:

...I found myself agreeing, [even] if [I agreed to attend his lunch]

only for the food.

Thank you

 

[Adam Cruge]

Anything more?