Why not "foot by foot"?
Hi, dear teachers. I come across this phrase "foot for foot" in the Shining. Here goes the context:
The snowmobile swept surely into the first half of an S curve that he now remembered confidently foot for foot, and that was when the headlamp picked out the (oh dear Jesus god what is it) in the road ahead of him.
I have previously asked it here:
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/foot-for-foot.3329419/#post-16865823
But I don't understand why Mr King uses "for" here. At the very beginning I thought it was a reference to, for example, "drink for drink"(for every drink they drink, you have to drink one too). But it doesn't make sense. I was told "foot by foot" is more common here. So why didn't the author just write "foot by foot" here? Does native speakers sometimes use "for" to replace "by"?
Thank you.
Top answer
It is the author's choice to use "foot for foot" rather than "foot by foot". There is no known reason for this choice. Native readers would hardly notice; they would just accept the wording and read on.
- It is the author's choice to use "foot for foot" rather than "foot by foot".
- There is no known reason for this choice.
- Native readers would hardly notice; they would just accept the wording and read on.
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It is the author's choice to use "foot for foot" rather than "foot by foot". There is no known reason for this choice. Native readers would hardly notice; they would just accept the wording and read on.
0The quoted passage is correct. "Foot by foot" would be incorrect here. "Foot for foot" is the correct idiom in American English (GPY is British) for this situation.
0Another way to look at this is as an elliptical construction. The complete rendering of the sentence would be something like:
"The snowmobile swept surely into the first half of an S curve that he how remembered confidently, foot for each perilously slippery foot, of having negotiated previously, and that was when..."
0
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