5 exercises — practise softening an earlier claim with the comment clause "then again".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "then again" to introduce a second thought after stating a plan?
"Then again, a staged rollout would limit the blast radius" correctly opens with the fixed two-word phrase "then again" followed by a comma. Options B, C, and D all reorder or pad the fixed phrase incorrectly.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "then again" mid-paragraph to reconsider a stated preference?
"...the managed service; then again, given our budget constraints..." correctly preserves the two-word fixed phrase. Options B, C, and D reorder or repeat words within the fixed phrase, which is ungrammatical.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "then again" (a self-reflective second thought that softens the first claim) from "on the other hand" (a more neutral, balanced presentation of two sides)?
"On the other hand, some teams prefer monorepos... then again, maybe I am overestimating..." correctly uses "on the other hand" to present the balanced comparison first, then "then again" to add a self-doubting second thought. Options B, C, and D swap or merge the two phrases incoherently.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "then again" to reconsider a criticism just made about a tool?
"Then again, it did catch a real bug in my last pull request" is the only option with the standard fixed order. Options B and D insert extra words into the phrase. Option C reverses the word order, which changes the meaning to a plain repetition rather than the idiom.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "then again" to soften an earlier confident claim about a root cause?
"Then again, we have not ruled out a clock skew issue" correctly keeps "then again" as a single unbroken unit followed by one comma. Option B misplaces the comma inside the following clause. Option C wrongly splits "then" and "again" with a comma. Option D reverses the fixed word order.