Full of or filled with?

Question

One of my students wrote: "Portuguese television is full of soap operas". This is a very common expression in Portuguese, but I'm not sure one can translate it literally into English. Is there a more correct expression?

On the other hand, if it were possible, should it be "full of soap operas" or "filled with soap operas"?

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

full of is fine in English too.

Clive · Answer

Hi Agnus,

Welcome to the Forum.

One of my students wrote: "Portuguese television is full of soap operas". This is a very common expression in Portuguese, but I'm not sure one can translate it literally into English. Is there a more correct expression? It sounds fine, although you could also say it in lots of other ways, eg 'There are a lot of soap operas on Portuguese television'.

On the other hand, if it were possible, should it be "full of soap operas" or "filled with soap operas"? Often, these expressions can be interchanged. However, here are a couple of comments.

full = all its capacity will allow. Your sentence just states a fact about Portuguese TV.

fill = make (or become) full. 'Filled with' in the right context can also put some of the focus on the process of 'filling'. eg 'In Portugal, TV directors have very limited creativity and imagination. Portuguese television is filled with soap operas'. (ie it is the directors who have done the filling.)

Best wishes, Clive

Agnus · Answer

Thank you both for your clarifications.

Just wanted to say that the idea conveyed is that there is nothing interesting to watch on Portuguese TV, since most programmes are soap operas. So probably the most appropriate would be "filled with", if I understand Clive's example correctly.

By the way, thank you also for clearing that the expressions can be interchanged. I didn't know that. Now and then, when something sounds too similar to my mother tongue, I start questioning if it is correct.

Anonymous · Answer

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Green file 425 · Answer

which is correct will be full of, or will be filled with

Full of or filled with?

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