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New2grammar Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

didn't work nearly so well

0 Below is a piece of writing I borrowed from Delmobile. Delmobile, I hope you don't mind.02br
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00Mama used to pay us a penny for every dead fly. Seems like we spent every Saturday morning from May to September swatting flies. We used to flip a coin to see who got to use the pink plastic butterfly-shaped flyswatter Mama got from Union Homestead Savings and Loan. The loser had to use a rolled-up newspaper, which didn't work nearly so well. 02br
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00My question is what is the difference between "work so well", "work well" and "work nearly so well"?02br
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00Thanks0-
  

Top answer

0 "didn't work so well" - Newspaper not as effective as the pink plastic flyswatter. 02br 00" didn't work nearly so well" Pink plastic flyswatter is much much more effective than newspaper. 0-

  • 0 "didn't work so well" - Newspaper not as effective as the pink plastic flyswatter.
  • 02br 00" didn't work nearly so well" Pink plastic flyswatter is much much more effective than newspaper.
  • 0-
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8 Answers
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0 "didn't work so well" - Newspaper not as effective as the pink plastic flyswatter. 02br
00" didn't work well" - Newspaper not an effective tool - no comparison with another tool.02br
00" didn't work nearly so well" Pink plastic flyswatter is much much more effective than newspaper. More emphasis on the difference in effectiveness.0-
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0 which didn't work well - it was not effective - no comparison with anything else.02br
00which didn't work so well - it was not effective compared to something else - it was less effective than something else.02br
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00which didn't work nearly so well - it was not at all effective compared to something else - it was much, much less effective than something else
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0 Thsi is a surprise to me. 02br
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00I have 2 questions:02br
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00Does it mean I can change the orignal to "didn't work anywhere near as well?"02br
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00Wow..he is so great! (There's no comparison involved. Is the sentence still correct? I'm shocked that so is used in comparison. I've always thought that it is done only by 'as')
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0 01i00Does it mean I can change the orignal to "didn't work anywhere near as well?"02i00 Yes, you can02br
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00The loser had to use a rolled-up newspaper, which didn't work nearly so well.02br
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00The loser had to use a rolled-up newspaper, which didn't work anywhere near as/so well. - For me, either can be used.02br
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0 01i00Wow..he is so great! (There's no comparison involved. Is the sentence still correct? I'm shocked that so is used in comparison. I've always thought that it is done only by 'as')02i02br
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00Thanks, Optilang. But it's not clear to me what your answer is. Are you saying my sentence is wrong and you corrected it by makingn a comparison? 0-
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1i00Wow..he is so great! 02i02br
00There is nothing wrong with the above statement.02br
00 My answer is, that to make a comparison, we need 01i01b00not so02b02i00...... 02br
00Hence, --- 02br
01i00Wow .. he is 01b00not so02b00 great as he used to be.02i00
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0 Thanks, Optilang. 0-
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Hi CJ,
Is this correct?
She is nowhere near as pretty as her sister.
She is not nearly as pretty as her sister.

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