decades

Question

Hello1.He has spent decades of hard effort to become what he is. WHAT DOES IT MEAN "DECADES"? HOW MANY ARE THESE?2.He is on another planet to other artists. IS IT A GOOD SENTENCE?THANK YOU

Rotter · Accepted Answer

Months of hard work means many months.
Decades of hard work means something like 10,20 or 30 years.

Newguest · Answer

May it mean over thirty years too?

How about the second sentence?

BarbaraPA · Answer

Newguest, I'm not sure what your second sentence is trying to say.

Can you try to say it another way?

Decades means 20, 30, 40 years. It would be wrong to use it for anything less than... I'd say 17 or 18 years (rounding those up to 20 years, which would be 2 decades). If you got up to 90 years, you would probaby say "almost a century."

Rotter · Answer

Yes, it can be 50, 60 or 70 years too.
The second sentence is fine; it depends on the context.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Oh wait - do you mean "Compared to other artists, he is on another plane"?

Newguest · Answer

"He is on another planet to other artists." or "He is on another planet compared to other artists" ARE BOTH OK?

BarbaraPA · Answer

It took me quite a while to understand what you meant. It's not grammatically wrong, but you make your reader work hard. Do the other artists see him as being on another plane (not planet), or do other people comparing him to the other artists put him there?

Newguest · Answer

Grammar Geek
It took me quite a while to understand what you meant. It's not grammatically wrong, but you make your reader work hard. Do the other artists see him as being on another plane (not planet), or do other people comparing him to the other artists put him there?

Hi

Why not "planet"??? He's so good that he's kinda from a different planet than others, not PLANE in my opinion! I think it's other people who compare him to other artists put him on another PLANET. For example, I'm looking at a great boxer during his fight and I say to my friend "Look, this guy must be from another planet cause (he's exceptionall) he's so good" I'm also wondering if the word ANOTHER (planet) from my first post is OK? What's more, this sentence "He's on another planet to other artists" has been written by a native speaker of English!!!

thanks

Goodman · Answer

Newguest
Hello

1.He has spent decades of hard effort to become what he is. WHAT DOES IT MEAN "DECADES"? HOW MANY ARE THESE?

2.He is on another planet to other artists. IS IT A GOOD SENTENCE?

THANK YOU

I know others already commented on your post. But quickly, I just want to add a couple of side notes.

A decade is 10 years. But be careful of how you use it. It can sound over-dramatized and funny if you say "I am 3 decades old"

. You can say "throughdecades / many years of hard work, he finally has made a name for himself". "Decade" here has certain degree of the dramatization affect to the sentence.

" He is on another planet" means The way he thinks / behaves is different than the rest of us

BarbaraPA · Answer

Newguest
Grammar Geek
It took me quite a while to understand what you meant. It's not grammatically wrong, but you make your reader work hard. Do the other artists see him as being on another plane (not planet), or do other people comparing him to the other artists put him there?

Hi

Why not "planet"??? He's so good that he's kinda from a different planet than others, not PLANE in my opinion! I think it's other people who compare him to other artists put him on another PLANET. For example, I'm looking at a great boxer during his fight and I say to my friend "Look, this guy must be from another planet cause (he's exceptionall) he's so good" I'm also wondering if the word ANOTHER (planet) from my first post is OK? What's more, this sentence "He's on another planet to other artists" has been written by a native speaker of English!!!

thanks

It doesn't say "he's from a different/another planet." It says he's "on" another planet. (Another versus different is fine.)

It doesn't say "from the other artists" (that he is being compared to), nor does it say "compared to other artists." It says "to other artists." That sounds like it's the other artists who think so.

The only way I can read that is that the other artists think he is so "far out" that he may as well on a different planet. It does not connote excellence or superiority at all. I can't help that a native wrote it. It's a crappy sentence if the intended meaning is "He is a lot better than other artists."

decades

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