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Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar
Proper or not?
Is this sentence proper?
"This string of numbers is identical to that one except for the last digit."
I am being told that the word identical cannot be modifier by anything because it strictly means completely the same, so something can't be "identical except". Would saying something was "almost identical" be acceptable and, if so, why is "almost identical" different than "identical except".
Thanks
Matt
"This string of numbers is identical to that one except for the last digit."
I am being told that the word identical cannot be modifier by anything because it strictly means completely the same, so something can't be "identical except". Would saying something was "almost identical" be acceptable and, if so, why is "almost identical" different than "identical except".
Thanks
Matt
Top answer
I do follow this reasoning, but I think it's overly pedantic. I don't think any native speaker would have a problem with either "identical except" or "almost identical". By the same logic, we also shouldn't say "nearly true", "slightly pregnant" or "almost dead" ...
- I do follow this reasoning, but I think it's overly pedantic.
- I don't think any native speaker would have a problem with either "identical except" or "almost identical".
- By the same logic, we also shouldn't say "nearly true", "slightly pregnant" or "almost dead" ...
- but we still do anyway.
- Boolean logic just doesn't square with our perception of the universe, somehow.
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1 Answers
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I do follow this reasoning, but I think it's overly pedantic. I don't think any native speaker would have a problem with either "identical except" or "almost identical".
By the same logic, we also shouldn't say "nearly true", "slightly pregnant" or "almost dead" ... but we still do anyway. Boolean logic just doesn't square with our perception of the universe, somehow. We think of pretty
By the same logic, we also shouldn't say "nearly true", "slightly pregnant" or "almost dead" ... but we still do anyway. Boolean logic just doesn't square with our perception of the universe, somehow. We think of pretty
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