84. ¿Es correcto este enunciado?: Is happy the contrary of sad?

Aunque parezca mentira, el enunciado es incorrecto. Happy sí es lo contrario de sad, pero contrary no se usa así. Las palabras que son antónimas son opposites, de modo que aquí debe usarse su forma en singular, opposite:

Is happy the contrary of sad?

Is happy the opposite of sad?

What’s the opposite of happy?

El origen del problema que presentan opposite y contrary radica en que traducirlas respectivamente por los términos españoles opuesto y contrario no funciona siempre de forma sistemática. Unas veces coinciden, otras no.

La idea de ser lo más diferente posible se expresa habitualmente usando el sustantivo opposite:

You ask her to do something, and she does the exactly the opposite.

George is a lovely boy, but Connie’s just the opposite.

They’re a strange couple, but I suppose they do say that opposites attract.

Este significado se mantiene cuando opposite se usa como adjetivo:

Oliver found it hard to talk to members of the opposite sex.

Unfortunately, Peter and Bill took the totally opposite view. They felt we shouldn’t do anything.

Ricki was facing the opposite way, so didn’t hear her come in.

Unfortunately, his attempts at calming things down had the opposite effect.

Cuando se niega que algo dicho anteriormente sea cierto, se puede usar quite the opposite, quite the contrary o on the contrary. En inglés americano se utiliza también to the contrary con este sentido:

She’s not lazy, Jim. Quite the opposite / contrary. She just can’t find a job, that’s all.

When looking for a child actor, experience isn’t always useful - on the contrary, the enthusiasm of an amateur, or beginner, is often more natural, and therefore preferable.

La expresión to the contrary se usa en todas las variantes de inglés como adverbial:

Percy and Roy may believe the situation is stable, but others would argue to the contrary.

La forma contrary to sugiere un conflicto de algún tipo:

The advice ran contrary to everything we had previously been told.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to wait an hour or two to swim after eating.

Contrary también puede utilizarse como sustantivo en contextos más formales, como el derecho, o en ensayos y artículos académicos, a menudo junto a palabras como suggest, indicate, prove, evidence y proof:

However, all the existing evidence indicates that the contrary is, in fact, the case.

At present, neither side can prove their claims, or prove the contrary.

Unless there is proof to the contrary, the police should abandon their campaign against my client.

PARA SABER MÁS

Sobre la diferencia entre opposite e in front of ⇒ 326.

Sobre la diferencia entre on the contrary y on the other hand ⇒ 381.