Mostly welcome

Question

My friend said that the following two are the same:

1. You are most welcome.
2. Your are mostly welcome.

I don't agree. I believe that "mostly" in 2 means "almost all, but NOT all"
which doesn't sound appropriate. "most" in 1 should mean "very".
I then checked if the phrase "mostly welcome" is common on the Web.
Surprisingly, there are a few thousand hits.

Is it wrongly used on those sites? Thanks.

MountainHiker · Accepted Answer

Hi Simon,

I googled "You are mostly welcome." with the quotes. I got two hits, one from a site in China and one from a site in Russia.

I then googled "You are most welcome." with the quotes. I got 713 hits.

If you use "most welcome" 500,000 hits, and "mostly welcome" 2,500 hits.

That's a strong ratio favoring most welcome.

Using GuruNet....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most

adv. Superlative of much.
In or to the highest degree or extent. Used with many adjectives and adverbs to form the superlative degree: most honest; most impatiently.
Very: a most impressive piece of writing.
Informal. Almost: Most everyone agrees.

most·ly (most'le)
adv.
For the greatest part; mainly.
Generally; usually.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From those definitions, most - to the highest degree. That's what I want to say when I say you are "most welcome." You are welcomed to the highest degree.

Mostly doesn't do it for me. I suppose you could argue that "for the greatest part" has some equivalence "to the highest degree." To me it sounds as though there is still something missing.

So I tend to agree with your reasoning. Put it this way, if you use "most welcome," you won't be wrong.

Hope that helps.

Miriam · Answer

Hello, Simon

First of all, I must say that I have no idea if people actually use "mostly welcome".
"You are welcome" is a common fixed expression and everyone would understand what you mean.

If, on the other hand, someone told me "you're mostly welcome", I'd understand:

a) That I am welcome for the greatest part... that is, not completely.
or
b) That I'm welcome most of the times, generally... but not always.

In either case, "mostly welcome" wouldn't sound polite in the least to me.

Miriam

Anonymous · Answer

I woulk like to ask a question that is "Are there any differences between "Mostly and Almost"?

Many thanks

Nona the brit · Answer

Yes these are two completely different words. Do you have a dictionary?

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Miriam,

How about the sentence: "You are the most welcome.", is that correct?

Thanks,
Winnie

Mostly welcome

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