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Vincent Ding Posted 20 years ago
Vocabulary
approximate
I see for quite a few times that some people use the word "approximate" this way:
1. They will suffer an approximate three weeks delay in the receipt of the cargo.
2. I arrived at Shanghai at approximate 9 o'clock on 7 May 2006.
I think that both of the two sentences erred grammatically on the use of approximate as it is an adjective(the two sentences call for an adverb).
so I'd like you to kindly clarify whether I'm right or wrong.
1. They will suffer an approximate three weeks delay in the receipt of the cargo.
2. I arrived at Shanghai at approximate 9 o'clock on 7 May 2006.
I think that both of the two sentences erred grammatically on the use of approximate as it is an adjective(the two sentences call for an adverb).
so I'd like you to kindly clarify whether I'm right or wrong.
Top answer
Hi Vincent, You're right. 1. They will suffer an approximate three weeks delay in the receipt of the cargo.
- Hi Vincent, You're right.
- 1.
- They will suffer an approximate three weeks delay in the receipt of the cargo.
- They will suffer a delay of approximately three weeks in the receipt of the cargo.
- 2.
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2 Answers
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Hi Vincent,
You're right.
1. They will suffer an approximate three weeks delay in the receipt of the cargo.
They will suffer a delay of approximately three weeks in the receipt of the cargo.
2. I arrived at Shanghai at approximate 9 o'clock on 7 May 2006.
I arrived at Shanghai at approximately
You're right.
1. They will suffer an approximate three weeks delay in the receipt of the cargo.
They will suffer a delay of approximately three weeks in the receipt of the cargo.
2. I arrived at Shanghai at approximate 9 o'clock on 7 May 2006.
I arrived at Shanghai at approximately
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I think you are certainly right about the second example. Simply adding the -ly will fix the sentence nicely.
The addition of -ly in the first sentence doesn't really fix the sentence completely, however.
As an adjective "three weeks" should be "three-week". an approximately three-week delay is rather awkward.
Better: a delay of approxima
The addition of -ly in the first sentence doesn't really fix the sentence completely, however.
As an adjective "three weeks" should be "three-week". an approximately three-week delay is rather awkward.
Better: a delay of approxima
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