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Exodejavu Posted 17 years ago
Vocabulary

Hustle and bustle

Hi,

My question this time is about "hustle and bustle."
Can it serve as a verb phrase?

I wrote a sentence which goes:
People hustle and bustle at the nightmarket.

A native Chinese speaker (ie, a leaner of English) doubts my use of "hustle and bustle" as a verb.

I did do some homework.
I had searched Google books, and I found
51 hits for "people hustling and bustling"
21 hits for "people hustled and bustled"
35 hits for "people hustle and bustle"

What in the world is wrong with its use as a verb?

I would like to have your comments.

Regards
  

Top answer

Hustle and bustle are both acceptable verbs. Really there is no argument against this as a grammatically correct construction. If you want to say that together they form a single verb, that's not quite right.

— Old Man Gordon

  • Hustle and bustle are both acceptable verbs.
  • Really there is no argument against this as a grammatically correct construction.
  • If you want to say that together they form a single verb, that's not quite right.
  • The use of these two together as verbs is not very common.
  • More commonly, we use hustle and bustle as a noun pair.
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1 Answers
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Hustle and bustle are both acceptable verbs. Really there is no argument against this as a grammatically correct construction. If you want to say that together they form a single verb, that's not quite right.

The use of these two together as verbs is not very common. More commonly, we use hustle and bustle as a noun pair. eg."I want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big
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