Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[BMO]

Found this in my old grammar book:

"There is no rule but has some exceptions." It says "but has" is the same as "but has not." The entire sentence says rules are meant to be borken.
Does this make any sense at all?

Thanks.

[obelix]

If I say, Jim has great musical ability but has problems with some difficult Mozart pieces.
It is not the same as saying, Jim has great musical ability but has no(t) problems with some difficult Mozart pieces
in fact, it is the opposite (although you would not use but in the second instance.
Rules are meant to be broken, is an old saw, but in fact rules are made to be observed, and to guide us.
Sometimes, though, great discoveries are made by people who break the rules of their disciplines.
For example Gallileo discovered that the earth revolved around the sun, whereas the "rules" of the day said that the sun revolved around the earth.
In this case, the rules were wrong.

[BMO]

Thanks. The old grammar book is wrong.