7 ms·
"one-fourth of all women" is this a Americanese thing? It reads like a gross simplification of just saying "a quarter" which is quite jarring coming from a pre
by dnel 2y ago
"one-fourth of all women"
is this a Americanese thing? It reads like a gross simplification of just saying "a quarter" which is quite jarring coming from a prestigious university.
- p3rls 2y agoImagine they put down "a fourth" which sounds more natural and grammarly or its human rendition swapped it for more precision. Definitely awkward.
- dnel 2y agoit almost sounds robotic, if I didn't expect that even AI would prefer generally accepted terms even just to try sound more authentic.
- pindab0ter 2y agoImagine reading "one-second(th?) of all women". It seems absolutely ridiculous. Yet "one-third" or "one-fifth" are perfectly normal. Language is weird and I like that.
- dnel 2y agoI'm sure there is a historical reason we have "half" and "quarter" and no others but it's not my area of expertise but still, not using them when they're appropriate just seems...odd.
- fingerlocks 2y agoWe do have others. You might be familiar with an octave, which is 1/8, or a decimal which is 1/10.
- kelnos 2y agoWeird nit to pick. I would probably write "a quarter" as well, but "one-fourth" (or, similarly, "a fourth") sounds pretty normal and idiomatic to me. (Also weird to label something "Americanese", given that out of the countries where English is the primary language, the US is the most populous [unless you count India, which I'm not sure I would]. I'd say that makes us, if not authoritative, at least trend-setting.)