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Angliholic Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

love is second/secondary to bread

To Sam, love is second/secondary to bread.
Simon loves his work. To him, work always comes first, and family and friends are second/secondary.

Hi,
Do both second and secondary fit in the above two samples mean about the same to you? Thanks.
  

Top answer

, but second in contrast to first . If you want to use an informal idiom, you can say that love takes a back seat to work. CJ

— CalifJim

  • , but second in contrast to first .
  • If you want to use an informal idiom, you can say that love takes a back seat to work.
  • CJ
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5 Answers
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I'd use secondary to ..., but second in contrast to first.
If you want to use an informal idiom, you can say that love takes a back seat to work.
CJ
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CalifJim I'd use secondary to ..., but second in contrast to first.

If you want to use an informal idiom, you can say that love takes a back seat to work.

CJ

Thanks, CJ.
But I'm still confused in one aspect, that is, once in a while I run across sentences like "When it comes to swimming, Phelp
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Angliholic "When it comes to swimming, Phelps is second to none." So, how should I decide to use second or secondary before "to?"
"Second" here means "second place."

When comparing swimmers, there is no one who could be considered in first place overall, thereby relegating Phelps to second place. "Second to none" is actually a fixed ex
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Thanks, Avangi.
But I still don't get it. It sounds perfectly good to me to say "To Sam, love is second to bread."
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AngliholicIt sounds perfectly good to me to say "To Sam, love is second to bread."
It's not ungrammatical, but, as I said, I would use secondary in this particular sentence. Maybe this is because I am not used to comparisons in which love and bread are directly compared.
CJ
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