'Against my expectation'?!

[Mehrgan]

Hi there,
Could anyone please tell me if this combination is correct in English? (Used when one didn't expect a result or so.)



Many thanks!

 

[jamiep]

I'd normally say expectations.

The phrase also seems more natural as "against all expectations."

 

[BobK]

:up: I sense - but haven't checked (yet) - the commoner collocations in Br Eng are 'against all expectations' but 'contrary to my expectations' and 'contrary to expectation' (no S). (I'n not sure how to word my BNC query...;-))

b

 

[BobK]

I was wrong. BNC has these:

1 AGAINST ALL EXPECTATIONS 8
2 AGAINST ALL EXPECTATION 2
3 AGAINST OVER-OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATIONS 2
4 AGAINST THESE EXPECTATIONS 1
5 AGAINST THE EXPECTATIONS 1
6 AGAINST REASONABLE EXPECTATION 1
7 AGAINST RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS 1
8 AGAINST PREVIOUS EXPECTATIONS 1
9 AGAINST MANY EXPECTATIONS 1
10 AGAINST CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS 1
11 AGAINST AN EXPECTATION 1
TOTAL 20

But though BNC has no 'contrary to [all] expectation/s' COCA has quite a few:

1 CONTRARY TO EXPECTATIONS 77
2 CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION 17
TOTAL 94

and fewer for 'against' (though with many more options):

1 AGAINST ALL EXPECTATIONS 8
2 AGAINST THE EXPECTATIONS 5
3 AGAINST UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS 4
4 AGAINST THE EXPECTATION 3
5 AGAINST ALL EXPECTATION 3
6 AGAINST ANY EXPECTATION 2
7 AGAINST LOW EXPECTATIONS 2
8 AGAINST EXAGGERATED EXPECTATIONS 2
9 AGAINST THESE EXPECTATIONS 1
10 AGAINST COUNTERVAILING EXPECTATIONS 1
11 AGAINST STEREOTYPICAL EXPECTATIONS 1
12 AGAINST SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS 1
13 AGAINST RHYTHMIC EXPECTATIONS 1
14 AGAINST REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS 1
15 AGAINST RADICAL EXPECTATION 1
16 AGAINST NORMAL EXPECTATIONS 1
17 AGAINST HIGH EXPECTATIONS 1
18 AGAINST HAVING EXPECTATIONS 1
19 AGAINST FALSE EXPECTATIONS 1
20 AGAINST AN EXPECTATION 1
TOTAL 41

(This is twice many as in BNC, but in a much bigger corpus. - so it's proportionally less common.)

Which seems to suggest that my usage shows American tendencies in this respect. My 19/20 years' stint working for DEC/Compaq/HP may explain this (and a childhood exposed to the film business: my parents met through Technicolor). This is probably more information than anyone needs... ;-)

b