English term
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Native in: Arabic
Works in: Arabic to English, English to Arabic, French to Arabic
may otherwise have been
"While new cars sold do decrease when vehicle ownership restrictions are imposed, the new cars that are sold appear to be less fuel efficient than they may otherwise have been."
The word otherwise here seems a bit tricky. I need to understand what the author meant here, and I need to know what native speakers think about this sentence meaning.
Than they may otherwise have been sold? or have been what? What's missing here?
Thanks a lot!
| 4 +7 | paraphrasing... |
Jennifer Levey
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| 5 +1 | may have been if there were no restrictions |
Kiet Bach
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Oct 16, 2022 22:11: writeaway changed "Field (write-in)" from "(none)" to "Automotive / Cars & Truck"
Oct 18, 2022 12:30: AllegroTrans changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Daryo, Anastasia Kalantzi, AllegroTrans
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Responses
Chile
Human-scale Globalization
Native in: English (Variant: British) 
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English to Spanish, and 2 more.
paraphrasing...
paraphrasing in plain(er) English -->
The number of new cars sold decreases when vehicle ownership restrictions are imposed. However, the cars that are sold when those restrictions are in force appear to be less fuel-efficient than those that are sold when restrictions are not in force.
IOW, the restrictions reduce the number of cars sold, but those cars are less efficient, so the benefit of the restrictions is lessened (in terms of overall fuel consumption, air pollution, etc.).
| Thanks a lot. That's really helpful |
| agree |
writeaway
1 hr
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Thanks.
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| agree |
Rachel Fell
1 hr
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Thanks.
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| agree |
Tony M
: It could, of course, be not that the cars themselves are less fuel efficient, but rather, that for some reason, people choose less fuel-efficient cars.
2 hrs
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Yes, it could - and your 2nd interpretation seems more likely. But we can't be sure with the minimal extract we have from the ST.
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| agree |
Yasutomo Kanazawa
8 hrs
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| agree |
Tantie Kustiantie
9 hrs
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| agree |
AllegroTrans
21 hrs
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| agree |
Anastasia Kalantzi
22 hrs
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may have been if there were no restrictions
Otherwise:
Under other circumstances
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/otherwise
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Note added at 1 hr (2022-10-16 20:45:56 GMT)
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For example:
A person would buy a car and a truck if there were no ownership restrictions. Suppose the ownership restrictions are to limit the number of vehicles that one can buy to 1, that person would buy the truck (to go to work and to haul things). The number of vehicles sold to that person drops from 2 to 1, but the fuel efficiency of a truck is less than the average fuel efficiency of a car and a truck.
| Thanks a lot! |
Discussion
Phil, you may diasagree with the way the writer expresses him/herself, but that isn't Samir's problem.
1. The text doesn't say 'cars decrease' - it says 'cars sold decrease', and 'cars sold' is a valid (albeit stylistically clumsy) way of referring to 'cars sales'.
2. 'appear to be' denotes speculation or conjecture on the part of the author, not a simple affirmation.
3. Again, 'may' denotes conjecture, 'would' denotes certainty.
You say the text is 'badly written'. I say that two of the three changes you suggest would significantly alter the meaning of the text.
Which is 'badest'? - poor style used when the author expresses his conclusions drawn from the body of evidence at his disposal, while at the same time making judicious use of expressions such as 'may be' or appears to be' to clarify the degree of (un)certainty in his findings, or the distortion of that perception by a third-party 'language cop' who has only seen a small part of the author's text and none of the supporting evidence?
@bonafide1313
You're right - there is nothing in the short extract from the ST posted here by Asker that allows us to conclude that the cars in question are less fuel-efficient.
2. They don't "appear to be" less fuel efficient, they ARE less fuel efficient
3. "Than they MAY otherwise have been" is difficult to understand. Why the uncertainty of MAY and not the certainty of WOULD?
What is for sure is that the intended meaning is crystal clear - as it is formulated, without any need for any "improvements" nor "additional context".