Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dinga271]

A question from a recent high school exam:

____________ t_____________ he has gone she will miss him very much.

Two answers volunteered by the students were 'Even though' and 'Now that'. Both of these answers were graded as correct after much debate between the Korean English teachers. An American English teacher from a middle school in the area supported their decision saying that both answers have the same meaning.

Resources I have search suggest that 'Now that' is the only correct answer. 'Now that' forms an adverbial clause of reason. (She will miss him very much - Why? - he has gone.) 'Even though' is supposed to make the contrast between 2 clauses emphatic - there is no contrast in this exam question.

Please weigh in and either back me up or show me where I have gone wrong.

[jadarite]

"Even though he has gone, she will miss him very much."

That doesn't make sense. Even though means "despite (the fact that)". Now that means "since". Totally different ideas. Of course she misses him, NOW THAT he has gone.

"Even though he has gone, she doesn't miss him very much." / "Even though he has gone, she hasn't missed him very much."

That's how it would be worded if "Even though" were to be used.

[Tobias]

Weighing in...

Both are akin to the subordinating conjuction 'because', a conjunction which refers to a cause.

'Even though' is used to convey the result is illogical, however. In this capacity, it's similar to 'yet' as well.

'Even though I studied for my exam, I failed it.'
'I studied for my exam, yet I failed it.'

'Now that' is akin to 'and', really.

'Now that he has gone, I miss him.'
'He has gone, and I miss him (because his status now is "gone").'

[oskinny1]

Even though he is a middle school English teacher, he doesn't know squat about English. Now that he has shown his lack if knowledge you know to avaoid him on these matters.

[jadarite]

Maybe he just didn't want to disagree with the Korean teachers

[M-Tea]

I can't say that I like either answer. "Now that" seems like the better of the two but if I were to use it in a more common sense it would end up being something like..

"Now that he IS gone, she will miss him very much."

If you think about it with has instead, it ends up only making sense if you think of the "has gone" as lead into a place.

"Now that he has gone (and not come back from) to a far away place, she will miss him very much."

Without a mention of a place it seems a bit awkward.

Finally, "Even though" makes pretty much zero sense to me. You'd need a "still" in the second part to even begin to make sense of that. In my opinion at least. I'd mark that wrong in two seconds.

Uh.. and I thought I'd add some suggestions for the answer.

"Into transience he has gone, she will miss him very much."
"It's true he has gone, she will miss him very much."
"Through time he has gone, she will miss him very much."
"Into turmoil he has gone, she will miss him very much."
"Completely trouserless he has gone, she will miss him very much."
(As he will most likely get arrested for exposing himself in public.)

I'll stop there before I get too ridiculous.

[ontheway]

Regretting that ... he has gone, she will miss him very much.

Surprised that ...

Saddened that ...

Terrified that ...

Shocked that ...

Remembering that ...

Recalling that ...

Recognizing that ...

Realizing that ...

Knowing that ...

Understanding that ...


(There are thousands of possibilities.)



Now that ... (this one is acceptable, though not the best)

Even though ... (NOT a correct answer)

[glasshalffull]

even though=fail

[this might make sense if the sentence were, "Even though he is gone she DOESN'T miss him."]

now that=correct

it would never make sense to trust a korean on english grammar...just as it would be dumb to trust a native english speaker on korean grammar.

it's okay to disagree with koreans if they're wrong.

[feel free to take this with a grain of salt. i'm a newb. but i am a grammar nazi.]

[some waygug-in]

It took me a while to think about this one. Monday I guess....

I agree with the above post, eventhough doesn't make sense unless a contrast has been established.

Eventhough I am stupid, I will attempt to answer this question.

The example given by the OP doesn't do that, so the correct answer must be Now that. (since that was the other option given on the exam)

[Teelo]

Hmmmmmmm.

I think the sentence is missing a comma.

____he has gone, she will miss him very much.

[branchsnapper]

Lots of missing of the point here, as per usual.

The phrase "even though" is used together with a factor which will make the previous or following clause more surprising/unlikely in some way. Since you canot miss someone unless they are gone there is no surprising factor here and the sentence is illogical.

[swigs]

I agree that "now that" is probably more correct. But for a high school test I would probably count both right and explain the differences.

Using "Even though" would be implying that she really did'nt like him. Or that he really didn't like her.

And because it is only one sentence were not sure what the circumstances are between 'he' and 'her'. Maybe he used to verbally abuse her. And even though he is gone, she will still miss him.

But with the given info, I agree that 'now that' is the better answer.

[branchsnapper]

Yes, its better to be broad usually. Especially because in this case you might read "miss him" as a substitute for "think about him" and thus I can imagine a native speaker saying it, and that is why is might strike some people as correct. It isn't a multiple choice question, and a student who gets "even though" has done pretty well.