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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary

profit vs advantage

In BBC "Poirot" by Agatha Christie I found the following dialogue:

(Poirot) If Eliza Dunn will communicate with this address, she will hear something to her profit.
(Hastings) Advantage.
(Poirot) Yes?
(Hastings) Yes.

Why only 'advantage' here?
Dictionary says 'advantage' = 'benefit; gain; profit'.
Which of these could I use in such situation?

Thanks a lot.
  

Top answer

Anonymous Why only 'advantage' here? Idiom. You wouldn't say "hear something to her gain", either.

— Enoon

  • Anonymous Why only 'advantage' here?
  • Idiom.
  • You wouldn't say "hear something to her gain", either.
  • By the way, the dictionary definition does not mean that you can simply plug any one of the proffered words into a sentence in place of the one you looked up.
  • You are supposed to take all three and combine them in your mind to arrive at the meaning of the entry word.
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4 Answers
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AnonymousWhy only 'advantage' here?
Idiom. You wouldn't say "hear something to her gain", either.

By the way, the dictionary definition does not mean that you can simply plug any one of the proffered words into a sentence in place of the one you looked up. You are supposed to take all three and combine them in your mind to arrive at the meaning of the
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enoonIdiom. You wouldn't say "hear something to her gain", either.
Thank you vare much, enum. So if I got it right, 'to her advantage' is (rather formal) cliche?
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Anonymous enoonIdiom. You wouldn't say "hear something to her gain", either.Thank you vare much, enum. So if I got it right, 'to her advantage' is (rather formal) cliche?
I think you could say that (hear something to her advantage). Dated and British, too, if I'm not mistaken. I believe it was formulaic for personal ads in the newspaper.
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AnonymousBBC "Poirot" by Agatha Christie
Note that in this series Poirot speaks his own version of English, which is often a sort of misguided translation of his native French, usually scripted for comic effect. His mistakes usually go uncorrected, so don't use his English as a model for yours!

CJ
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