Can you explain the meaning of the sentence? I would like to understand it grammartically as well. Is 'none' a plural word? How to understand 'the + less(comparative)'? What does 'equally mean' mean?
Let's break the sentence down first, then we can put it together again for meaning.
You've omitted a subject which I'm going to guess is 'They'.
It's in the past tense because of the 'were'.
'None the less' (or 'nonetheless', 'none-the-less' and 'nevertheless') means 'in spite of', 'despite' or 'however'.
It is often between two different thoughts.
Examples
It was raining. None the less, I went.
The book had terrible review none the less I wanted to read it.
Studying English was hard but, none the less, I carried on.
In the first example, the person went somewhere even though it was raining. Same in the other two sentences.
'Equally' - is an adverb of equal.
These people are equal (the same).
Equal here is an adjective to describe the people.
These people are equally tall.
Adding the adjective 'tall' means the equal from before changes to an adverb, equally.
Mean = nasty, horrible, does things to others in bad spirit.
So, let's put that back together.
They (subject)
were (past tense)
none the less (in spite of something that happened before)
equally (the same amount of...)
mean.
Let me write a short paragraph with some context for the sentence.
"In the year 2018 Tom and Tim were very mean boys. They were mean to everyone at school and their teachers. When it was Christmas the boys didn't get many presents. There parents said that Santa Claus has watched them and was disappointed with their behaviour.
In 2019 they were none the less equally mean. They were still mean to everyone at school and their teachers..."
My context for the 'none the less' was that they did not get many presents and, in spite of that, didn't change their behaviour.
Thank you so much. It is easy for me to understand when I rewrite it in this way; 'None the less, they were equally mean.' So, can I understand 'none the less' as an adverb phrase? I saw you call an adverb phrase a different name such as 'location chunk'. What do you call this adverb phrase; 'none the less'? A condition chunk? And why 'none the less' is in between 'were' and 'equally'? Sometime, English speakers use 'However' in the middle of sentence; '~,however, ~'.(Not, 'However, ~.') Is there any rule to use it like this? Is it mostly for writing? Lastly, you wrote 'none-the-less' above. What is the difference with and without the hypens?
I'll take the last question first. It is just a different way of writing it. I would probably write 'nonetheless', the word without any space.
The general rule is that if your contracting one sentence with another, the 'however' etc. goes at the beginning.
I wanted to go to the park. However, I couldn't because my dog was ill.
But, a simple reorder can put the 'however' in the middle of the second sentence:
I wanted to go to the park. I couldn't, however, because my dog was ill.
The 'however' in the second sentence still contradicts the first sentence, but you can use it in the middle.
I am very uneasy about calling this an 'adverbial phrase' or '~ chunk'. The reason is that you can't use it in most sentences to improve it. The idea of the chunks is that you can add them almost anywhere to make your sentences better and more natural. They're designed for 'beginners' and 'intermediate' level learners.
Calling this an 'adverbial phrase' means nothing because there's no or very little guidance in that phrase about how to use it. Learners should learn this kind of phrase in the context of what it means rather than try and put it in a grammatical category.
Let's break the sentence down first, then we can put it together again for meaning.
You've omitted a subject which I'm going to guess is 'They'.
It's in the past tense because of the 'were'.
'None the less' (or 'nonetheless', 'none-the-less' and 'nevertheless') means 'in spite of', 'despite' or 'however'.
It is often between two different thoughts.
Examples
It was raining. None the less, I went.
The book had terrible review none the less I wanted to read it.
Studying English was hard but, none the less, I carried on.
In the first example, the person went somewhere even though it was raining. Same in the other two sentences.
'Equally' - is an adverb of equal.
These people are equal (the same).
Equal here is an adjective to describe the people.
These people are equally tall.
Adding the adjective 'tall' means the equal from before changes to an adverb, equally.
Mean = nasty, horrible, does things to others in bad spirit.
So, let's put that back together.
They (subject)
were (past tense)
none the less (in spite of something that happened before)
equally (the same amount of...)
mean.
Let me write a short paragraph with some context for the sentence.
"In the year 2018 Tom and Tim were very mean boys. They were mean to everyone at school and their teachers. When it was Christmas the boys didn't get many presents. There parents said that Santa Claus has watched them and was disappointed with their behaviour.
In 2019 they were none the less equally mean. They were still mean to everyone at school and their teachers..."
My context for the 'none the less' was that they did not get many presents and, in spite of that, didn't change their behaviour.
I'll take the last question first. It is just a different way of writing it. I would probably write 'nonetheless', the word without any space.
The general rule is that if your contracting one sentence with another, the 'however' etc. goes at the beginning.
I wanted to go to the park. However, I couldn't because my dog was ill.
But, a simple reorder can put the 'however' in the middle of the second sentence:
I wanted to go to the park. I couldn't, however, because my dog was ill.
The 'however' in the second sentence still contradicts the first sentence, but you can use it in the middle.
I am very uneasy about calling this an 'adverbial phrase' or '~ chunk'. The reason is that you can't use it in most sentences to improve it. The idea of the chunks is that you can add them almost anywhere to make your sentences better and more natural. They're designed for 'beginners' and 'intermediate' level learners.
Calling this an 'adverbial phrase' means nothing because there's no or very little guidance in that phrase about how to use it. Learners should learn this kind of phrase in the context of what it means rather than try and put it in a grammatical category.