Timeline for She got an A for effort. (meaning of the sentence)
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
27 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 24, 2021 at 3:13 | answer | added | blinkdog | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 23, 2021 at 23:39 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | Neither is close to showing the meaning of the example. 1. She tried to get an A… is too far out. 2. We don't know… is simply wrong. The one thing we do know is that she got good grades; the teacher gave her an A, which you guess was because she showed an effort. I've only ever heard of "E for effort", suggesting that the work would otherwise have been ungraded, but the effort saved it. | |
| May 23, 2021 at 23:02 | comment | added | Benjamin Harman | It means she put in so much effort that despite her final work product not being worthy of an A, the teacher gave her an A anyway, like so that she would not be discouraged from working so hard only to get a mediocre or worse grade and so just give up and not work that hard again. Personally, I don't believe in giving an A for effort. In my book, if effort is the best thing I can say about your work, then you get an E for effort, the letter "effort" actually starts with. Work smart, not hard. | |
| May 23, 2021 at 22:03 | answer | added | blahblahblacksheep | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 23, 2021 at 13:53 | answer | added | fraxinus | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 22, 2021 at 7:51 | comment | added | Vicky | @OwenReynolds No idea, because the OP didn't give us any context - although their second example sentence is in the context of school reports. It seems like a good idea on a site for language learners to explain that the same phrase can have different meanings in different contexts. | |
| May 22, 2021 at 5:24 | comment | added | Michael E2 | In my circle, “A for effort” often simply means that one tried and failed. One need not have tried very hard, though in some contexts that could be the intended meaning. It need not be connected to school or grades. It is a positive way to imply “that didn’t work out very well.” It could also mean, “it looked like a good idea but it didn’t work.” | |
| May 22, 2021 at 0:37 | answer | added | Ronnie Childs | timeline score: 4 | |
| May 21, 2021 at 23:01 | comment | added | Owen Reynolds | @Vicky But do you think the OP went to their daughter's parent/teacher conference, was verbally told "she got an A for effort" (since a written card would simple say "Effort:A"), and was too shy to ask the teacher what it meant? | |
| May 21, 2021 at 20:55 | answer | added | user136280 | timeline score: 7 | |
| May 21, 2021 at 18:00 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jun 1, 2021 at 3:02 | |||||
| May 21, 2021 at 17:27 | answer | added | Seth R | timeline score: 28 | |
| May 21, 2021 at 17:25 | comment | added | Aubreal | You should wait at least 24 hours to accept an answer, to let the voting system work its magic. Accepting too early de-incentivizes members from writing new answers, and skews the votes since the accepted answer is pinned to the top. | |
| May 21, 2021 at 16:35 | comment | added | eps | Neither. The accepted answer also misses the point of the phrase. Seth's comment is the correct answer. | |
| May 21, 2021 at 16:16 | comment | added | AbraCadaver | Kind of like good initiative, poor execution. | |
| May 21, 2021 at 16:13 | comment | added | Vicky | Careful with the context here. As well as the slightly sarcastic meaning already mentioned in some answers (basically, she tried really hard but completely failed), in the context of an actual school report this has a much more straightforward meaning. My children's school reports have, for each subject, separate grades for "effort" and "attainment". It is perfectly possible to get any combination of high and low grades. So in this context "She got an A for effort" literally just means, she clearly tried hard and so she has a good effort grade; it tells you nothing about her attainment grade. | |
| May 21, 2021 at 16:09 | comment | added | marsnebulasoup | I think the phrase is really used as a way to get around telling someone that they/somebody didn't make it/get what they were hoping for, without explicitly stating what they actually got, because it's probably disappointing. E.g.: You made a good effort, (rest is unspoken, implied >) but you didn't get what you were hoping for. | |
| May 21, 2021 at 15:44 | answer | added | Ertai87 | timeline score: 61 | |
| May 21, 2021 at 15:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglishLL/status/1395756302127693826 | ||
| May 21, 2021 at 14:13 | history | became hot network question | |||
| May 21, 2021 at 6:53 | history | edited | Rayan Khan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 21, 2021 at 6:51 | vote | accept | gomadeng | ||
| S May 21, 2021 at 6:40 | vote | accept | gomadeng | ||
| May 21, 2021 at 6:51 | |||||
| May 21, 2021 at 6:32 | answer | added | flumperious | timeline score: 26 | |
| May 21, 2021 at 6:32 | vote | accept | gomadeng | ||
| S May 21, 2021 at 6:40 | |||||
| May 21, 2021 at 6:25 | answer | added | Alexander A. | timeline score: 5 | |
| May 21, 2021 at 6:13 | history | asked | gomadeng | CC BY-SA 4.0 |