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New2grammar Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

relatively speaking

0Relatively speaking, meat prices increase at slower rates than oil prices.02br
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00Is the sentence logical and correct?02br
00Thanks.0-
  

Top answer

0Since no units of quantity of meat or oil are specified, the only way the rates of price increase can be meaningfully compared is if they are converted to percentage price changes (which is in any case the way that price changes are usually expressed). Without any further context, I guess I'd assume that "relatively speaking" is just emphasising that this is how the changes are being compared. But since I'd assume that anyway, even without "relatively speaking" (as it's the only way the statement makes sense), I'm kind of left wondering if "relatively" might mean something else.

— Mr Wordy

  • 0Since no units of quantity of meat or oil are specified, the only way the rates of price increase can be meaningfully compared is if they are converted to percentage price changes (which is in any case the way that price changes are usually expressed).
  • Without any further context, I guess I'd assume that "relatively speaking" is just emphasising that this is how the changes are being compared.
  • But since I'd assume that anyway, even without "relatively speaking" (as it's the only way the statement makes sense), I'm kind of left wondering if "relatively" might mean something else.
  • For this reason, the statement is not terribly satisfactory in my view.
  • If the percentage aspect needs to be emphasised then I would prefer "In percentage terms, meat prices increase at slower rates than oil prices".
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2 Answers
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0Since no units of quantity of meat or oil are specified, the only way the rates of price increase can be meaningfully compared is if they are converted to percentage price changes (which is in any case the way that price changes are usually expressed). Without any further context, I guess I'd assume that "relatively speaking" is just emphasising that this is how the changes are being compared.
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0 That's a very clear explanation. I've been having problems with the word relative. When I wrote the sentence, I wondered if I needed "Relatively speaking". Thanks, Mr. Wordy. 0-
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