On Saturday 02 January 2016 15:06:37 Alan McKinnon wrote: > "half as big again" means "50% larger than".
That is, take the original measure, add one-half of it again and you have 1.5 x the original. > i.e. calculate 50% and add it, making the total 150%. > It's an English idiom, so don;t try to figure it out from each word, > just recognize the whole phrase. English is full of that shit. That's too rude. Rather, I'd say it's rich with all manner of idioms, all of which are expressive and help to make the point clear. Tough on people new to the language, but that's life. Numerous invasions and occupations by foreign peoples have contributed to what we see today. In contrast, Americans are set on destroying all this richness, I suppose in the interest of "simplicity", which introduces either ambiguity or ugliness instead. They've already practically scrapped four whole verb tenses, and now adverbs are going the same way. Pigs and whistles, indeed. -- Rgds Peter
