Grammar
I've read the following sentence in a book:
They had actually spent a mere ten days together.
I do understand the meaning, but I don't understand the expression "a mere ten days".
To me, "mere" is a synonym for "only" or "just".
But I can't say the following, or can I?
They had actually spent a only ten days together.
They had actually spent a just ten days together.
Can I also say:
They had actually spent merely ten days together. ?
Thank you in advance!
Veit
Top answer
file tile 16 I do understand the meaning, but I don't understand the expression "a mere ten days". com/questions/252173/indefinite-articles-used-with-plural-nouns-it-was-an-amazing-two-days . The upshot seems to be that nobody knows why we can use "a" that way, at least nobody posting where we can see them.
- file tile 16 I do understand the meaning, but I don't understand the expression "a mere ten days".
- com/questions/252173/indefinite-articles-used-with-plural-nouns-it-was-an-amazing-two-days .
- The upshot seems to be that nobody knows why we can use "a" that way, at least nobody posting where we can see them.
- English has acquired many little quirks over the centuries, and they developed without the benefit of scholarly guidance or documentation.
- Our relatively modern standard schoolboy grammar certainly can't handle this one.
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file tile 16I do understand the meaning, but I don't understand the expression "a mere ten days".
There is a lengthy discussion about that here: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/252173/i
0file tile 16I don't understand the expression "a mere ten days".
a [period/series] of [only / no more than ] ten days
This sort of expression is meant to minimize the importance of the time period. Here it seems to me that there is a subtle claim that ten days was not enough to form much of a bond.
CJ
0
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