Here "most" means "a plurality". Most dentists recommend Colgate toothpaste. Here it is ambiguous about whether there is a bare majority or a comfortable majority. From the 2nd Language Log link: I searched on Google for the pattern "most * percent", and picked out of the first 150 hits all the examples like these:
During most of history, humans were too busy to think about thought. Why is "most of history" correct in the above sentence? I could understand the difference between "Most of the people" and "Most
These are questions that most people could answer. Another way to look at it: "What TV show do you spend most of the time watching?" is a loaded question. It already implies that I spend most of my time watching TV. Compare it to "What spills do you spend most of the time cleaning up?" which will annoy me because I don't spill anything.
The current Nintendo Switch, a console that's almost 8 years old at this point, currently offers 147 free options for your account's profile picture. That seems like a lot (because it is, let's be ...
If so, my analysis amounts to a rule in search of actual usage—a prescription rather than a description. In any event, the impressive rise of "free of" against "free from" over the past 100 years suggests that the English-speaking world has become more receptive to using "free of" in place of "free from" during that period.
Most is defined by the attributes you apply to it. "Most of your time" would imply more than half, "the most time" implies more than the rest in your stated set. Your time implies your total time, where the most time implies more than the rest. I think "most" leads to a great deal of ambiguity.
What does the word "most" mean? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Which one of the following sentences is the most canonical? I know most vs. the most has been explained a lot, but my doubts pertain specifically to which one to use at the end of a sentence. Do...
"most" vs "the most", specifically as an adverb at the end of sentence
The adverbial use of the definite noun the most synonymous with the bare-adverbial most to modify an entire clause or predicate has been in use since at least the 1500s and is an integral part of English.
grammar - When to use "most" or "the most" - English Language & Usage ...
I've recently come across a novel called A most wanted man, after which being curious I found a TV episode called A most unusual camera. Could someone shed some light on how to use "a most" and wh...
superlative degree - How/when does one use "a most"? - English Language ...
meaning - Is "most" equivalent to "a majority of"? - English Language ...
Welcome to the most wildest show on earth. Someone pointed out the most wildest and I was wondering if it was OK to use most with a word that ends in -est together.
grammar - Is it correct to use "most" + "-est" together? - English ...
1 If your question is about frequency, in both the Corpus of Contemporary English and the British National Corpus there are three times as many records for most as for the most.
adverbs - Which is more common - 'the most' or 'most'? - English ...
I was always under impression that "most important" is correct usage when going through the list of things. We need to pack socks, toothbrushes for the trip, but most important is to pack underwe...
grammar - Is it "most" or "the most" or "most of time"? - English ...
Most is what is called a determiner. A determiner is "a word, such as a number, article, personal pronoun, that determines (limits) the meaning of a noun phrase." Some determiners can only be used with either a countable noun or an uncountable noun, while others, like most, can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns usually take a singular verb. So, in your ...
Most is vs most are - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
"Free of" vs. "Free from" - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Free ride dates back to 1880, while free loader is a more recent construction “freeloader (n.) also free-loader, by 1939, from free (adj.) + agent noun from load (v.)As a verb, freeload is attested by 1967 and probably is a back-formation from this”
I don't think there's any difference in meaning, although "free of charges" is much less common than "free of charge". Regarding your second question about context: given that English normally likes to adopt the shortest phrasing possible, the longer form "free of charge" can be used as a means of drawing attention to the lack of demand for ...
For free vs. free of charges [duplicate] - English Language & Usage ...
Similarly, “free education” is funded by the state (which is ultimately financed by taxpayers) and taught in state-run schools called state schools whereas schools that charge tuition fees are termed private schools. A private school in the US typically means fee-taking. Confusingly, in the UK, they are known as public schools.
single word requests - The opposite of "free" in phrases - English ...
6 For free is an informal phrase used to mean "without cost or payment." These professionals were giving their time for free. The phrase is correct; you should not use it where you are supposed to only use a formal sentence, but that doesn't make a phrase not correct.
grammaticality - Is the phrase "for free" correct? - English Language ...
The fact that it was well-established long before OP's 1930s movies is attested by this sentence in the Transactions of the Annual Meeting from the South Carolina Bar Association, 1886 And to-day, “free white and twenty-one,” that slang phrase, is no longer broad enough to include the voters in this country.
What is the opposite of free as in "free of charge" (when we speak about prices)? We can add not for negation, but I am looking for a single word.