Pages

Tuesday 18 October 2011

More or less


More or less is one of the most common expressions for Spanish people speaking in English, however, do we have other different ways of expressing Approximation? Of course, we have. In conversation, we may need to talk about figures and numbers or even something which is only approximate, so for that reason, we'd better have a look at the following approximating expressions and sentences:

This book cost me four pounds something.
I took around two weeks or something like that.
There were just under / over / roughly / very nearly / upwards of / somewhere in the region of / some two thousand people there.
I've been here for twenty odd years. (odd= approximately, colloquial; Spanish: y tantas, -os; y pico)
I've been working as an accountant for something like five years now.
About; around.
Sort of, kind of, -ish...

To conclude, I hope you like this post and thus, you satisfy some of your language teaching expectations about Approximation and for the next time you need to express yourself broadly or generally speaking, you'll have, at least, some expressions to use and incorporate into your everyday language.

Source: Paraphrased from Straightforward. Advanced Student's Book by Roy Norris

No comments:

Post a Comment