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+++ Hätten wir dann weniger gestritten?

+++ Ganz im Gegenteil.

I'm torn between two possible interpretations of im Gegenteil. The expression is obviously used in relation to the word weniger, but does this mean:

(A): No, we would have argued quite a lot, contrary to your expectation.

or (B): Yes, in that (hypothetical) case, we would not have argued at all, contrary to how things actually stand at the moment (where we do fight a lot).

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  • Only interpretation A is possible. That is because im Gegenteil can only negate the preceding sentence as a whole. Your second interpretation plays around with the first sentence instead of taken it as set. Is this a question about German language at all?
    – Janka
    Apr 14, 2017 at 1:37

1 Answer 1

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Interpretation A) is the right one.

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