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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
beat about the bush, set the record straight
Hey guys,
Could you please have a look at these sentences and tell me if they're correct?
''Stop beating about the bush and tell me why you don't like me!'' (Do young people use this phrase when they want someone to get straight to what bothers them?
''To set the record straight, the problem is not in the computer itself but the system had to be restarted because of some other issues and it takes a while before it starts up again. The computer should be working in a couple of minutes.'' (Does 'set the record straight' work in this case?)
Could you please have a look at these sentences and tell me if they're correct?
''Stop beating about the bush and tell me why you don't like me!'' (Do young people use this phrase when they want someone to get straight to what bothers them?
''To set the record straight, the problem is not in the computer itself but the system had to be restarted because of some other issues and it takes a while before it starts up again. The computer should be working in a couple of minutes.'' (Does 'set the record straight' work in this case?)
Top answer
content=beating+about+the+bush , is that the expression "beating about the bush" is declining in frequency, and is probably not tremendously common now among young people. Nevertheless, to my ear it is still fine to use and does not sound odd or dated. I am in the UK; a US speaker can answer for the situation there.
- content=beating+about+the+bush , is that the expression "beating about the bush" is declining in frequency, and is probably not tremendously common now among young people.
- Nevertheless, to my ear it is still fine to use and does not sound odd or dated.
- I am in the UK; a US speaker can answer for the situation there.
- In the second example, "To set the record straight" is OK; it implies that there has previously been some misinformation or misunderstanding about what happened.
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2 Answers
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My feeling, which is borne out by the graph at https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=beating+about+the+bush, is that the expression "beating about the bush" is declining in frequency, and is probably not tremendously common now among young people. Nevertheless, to my ear it is
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