Old fashioned??

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Franco - 28 Dec 2003 20:02 GMT

Are these sentences very old fashioned?

"They live very near now"
" You are near right"

"It lasted near a century"

Let me know , please

Regards
Franco

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John Hall - 28 Dec 2003 20:43 GMT

>Are these sentences very old fashioned?
>
>"They live very near now"

This one is using "near" to mean close in terms of distance. It seems OK
to me.

>" You are near right"

Here it would be normal to say "nearly".

>"It lasted near a century"

Here I think "near" is being used to mean "approximately", but it isn't
all that clear. "Nearly" wouldn't be quite the same, as it would have
the sense of "slightly less than".

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John Hall
"Home is heaven and orgies are vile,
But you *need* an orgy, once in a while."
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

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Aaron J. Dinkin - 29 Dec 2003 00:39 GMT

>>Are these sentences very old fashioned?
>>
>>"They live very near now"
>
> This one is using "near" to mean close in terms of distance. It seems OK
> to me.

It'd have to be "nearby" for me. I don't think I can use "near" as an
adverb, or at least not in the way it's used in the example.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

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Michael J Hardy - 29 Dec 2003 14:41 GMT

> Are these sentences very old fashioned?
>
> "They live very near now"
> " You are near right"
>
> "It lasted near a century"

The last one definitely seems old-fashioned. In modern
usage one would say "nearly". Similarly in the second sentence,
although I would rather use the third to exemplify the former
usage that is no longer idiomatic. In the first one, "nearly"
would be incorrect. "Near" would not, but somehow the sentence
seems awkward to me. -- Mike Hardy

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Discussion Groups / British English / December 2003

Old fashioned??