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Moon7296 Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary
Cut it half/ cut it one third/ cut it a quarter????
We say, cut it half
Then how do you say when you want to cut, for example, a cake into 3 pieces equally?
Q1) Is it 'cut it one third'?
and what about 4,5 and 6 pieces equally ?
Q2) Is it 'cut it a quarter' , 'cut it one fifth', 'cut it one sixth?'
Then how do you say when you want to cut, for example, a cake into 3 pieces equally?
Q1) Is it 'cut it one third'?
and what about 4,5 and 6 pieces equally ?
Q2) Is it 'cut it a quarter' , 'cut it one fifth', 'cut it one sixth?'
Top answer
1-- Cut it into thirds, fourths or quarters, fifths, sixths. 2-- As above.
- 1-- Cut it into thirds, fourths or quarters, fifths, sixths.
- 2-- As above.
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5 Answers
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1-- Cut it into thirds, fourths or quarters, fifths, sixths.
2-- As above.
2-- As above.
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These are the most common in British English:
Cut it in half
Cut it in two OR cut it into two
Cut it into three
Cut it in quarters
Cut it into four
Cut it into five
Cut it into six
etc.
I'm not offering an explanation for this! I'm just giving commonly accepted usage.
[one possible reason why we don't usually say 'cut it into fifths' or 'cut it in
Cut it in half
Cut it in two OR cut it into two
Cut it into three
Cut it in quarters
Cut it into four
Cut it into five
Cut it into six
etc.
I'm not offering an explanation for this! I'm just giving commonly accepted usage.
[one possible reason why we don't usually say 'cut it into fifths' or 'cut it in
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Thirds, quarters, sixths etc are plural nouns of the particular fraction, so we cut it into halves, thirds, fifths, sixths etc. "pieces" is plural, so we cut it into pieces (into two pieces, ten pieces etc). "Cut it
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Technically you can;
"Bisect" it - cut it into halves
"Trisect" it - cut it into thirds
"Quarter it" - cut it into quarters
I don't think the terms pentasect, hectasect, septasect, octosect, nanosect or decasect actually exist (they are not in the Windows Spelling Dictionary anyway), so after four pieces go the long route; "Cut it into fifths" etc.
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