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Rotter Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Apples about
A homeowner in southern Sweden got a shock when he found a drunken elk stuck in his neighbour's apple tree.
The moose was apparently on the hunt for fermenting apples when she lost her balance and became trapped in the tree.
Per Johansson, from Saro near Gothenburg, found the elk making a roaring noise in the garden next door.
He called the emergency services, who helped him free the boozed-up beast by sawing off branches. She spent the night recovering in the garden.
The next day she took herself off into the woods with her hangover.
Drunken elk are not an uncommon sight in Sweden during autumn, when there are plenty of apples about.
Other residents of Saro had seen the elk on the loose in the preceding days.
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There are about 10 apples in my kitchen.
I didn't count them. I guess the figure 10.
Now read the above passage.
In the penultimate sentence you will read the words 'apples about'.
The preposition 'about' is an overkill.
What is the meaning of it?
The moose was apparently on the hunt for fermenting apples when she lost her balance and became trapped in the tree.
Per Johansson, from Saro near Gothenburg, found the elk making a roaring noise in the garden next door.
He called the emergency services, who helped him free the boozed-up beast by sawing off branches. She spent the night recovering in the garden.
The next day she took herself off into the woods with her hangover.
Drunken elk are not an uncommon sight in Sweden during autumn, when there are plenty of apples about.
Other residents of Saro had seen the elk on the loose in the preceding days.
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There are about 10 apples in my kitchen.
I didn't count them. I guess the figure 10.
Now read the above passage.
In the penultimate sentence you will read the words 'apples about'.
The preposition 'about' is an overkill.
What is the meaning of it?
Top answer
"About" in this case is used to mean "around" or "available", not "approximately". This use is less common but still fairly frequent. For example, there's the widely-used idiom "out and about" which means "out and moving around".
- "About" in this case is used to mean "around" or "available", not "approximately".
- This use is less common but still fairly frequent.
- For example, there's the widely-used idiom "out and about" which means "out and moving around".
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2 Answers
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"About" in this case is used to mean "around" or "available", not "approximately".
This use is less common but still fairly frequent. For example, there's the widely-used idiom "out and about" which means "out and moving around".
This use is less common but still fairly frequent. For example, there's the widely-used idiom "out and about" which means "out and moving around".
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The phrase "plenty of apples about" is correct. Here the word "about" is technically an adv. modifying the verb "are," and meaning something like "lying around," but it is actually more of an intensifier-type of word that has no exact meaning. You see the word "about" used like this in phrases like: "He's out and about," "That's a round about way of doing it," "He's fifty years old or thereabo
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