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Today I have encountered a phrase:

If not for you, I would be poor.

I would think it is like "if there were not you", is it like that?

On the other hand, how would I say the following as the meaning would be different:

If not for you, whom do I cook the cake for?

Pietro
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  • Bob Dylan liked this idiom. – J.R. May 21 '12 at 15:11
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    Incidentally, one bakes a cake. If it goes in the oven it is baked (or broiled). If it goes on the stove it is cooked. – Jim May 21 '12 at 17:30
  • You can cook some things in the oven, but sweet things (cakes, cookies, biscuits) are baked not cooked. – Stuart F May 09 '22 at 18:29
  • I suppose the first example employs an idiom. Leaving out 'it were/was' stretches the grammar (we don't say, for instance, 'If Ø a decision that would only affect my family and myself in the short term' [Ø shows the deleted 'it were'], if only to avoid the garden path): an extragrammatical idiom. But the second example shows an unmarked usage (except that the sentence is poor per se). 'If it's not for you, who am I cooking the cake for?' or 'If we count you out, who should i cook the cake for?' – Edwin Ashworth May 10 '22 at 11:30

4 Answers4

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The construction If not for X is an idiomatic phrase in English. The verb to be is normally left out when you use this construction, though if you restore it the full form would be:

If it were not for you, I would be poor.

However, the original version without it were is also correct:

If not for you, I would be poor.

Your version with if there were not you is grammatically incorrect. The construction There is X cannot be used with a pronoun in place of X under most circumstances.

Your example sentence If not for you, whom do I cook the cake for? is also correct, but this is a completely different construction which superficially resembles the one in your question.

JSBձոգչ
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To me, "if not for you" means: If it were not for you to help, I would be poor.

The meaning of "it" is also clear (it means "to help").

Ellie Kesselman
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Lorenzo A. Fernandez Jr.
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“Not for you” is an idiomatic expression that means.

  1. It wasn’t designed with you in mind;
  2. it is priced beyond your ability to pay;
  3. you are not willing to pay the price;
  4. it won’t work for you the way it will fit someone for whom it was designed.
KillingTime
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Marcus
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The first sample sentence and your last sample sentence are entirely different contexts.

The first can be paraphrased as, "If you had not been involved in my case, then I would still be poor."

The second can be paraphrased as, "If I'm not cooking for you, then who am I cooking for?"

Steve
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