5
votes
Accepted
Is "You smell like sweat." the idiomatic way of saying it?
Except for 3 (which is the transitive verb "smell" and means "detect an odour", instead of "give off an odour") these are all possible.
"You smell like sweat" ...
- 195k
4
votes
Accepted
Is "well within" an idiomatic expression
Yes, it's idiomatic.
It implies that not only is something within requirements but within by a notable margin.
From Cambridge Dictionary - within
inside the limits of something, for example the law ...
- 16.1k
4
votes
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What does it mean if the floor of a house "fall through"? Does it mean it goes down onto the next floor down?
To say that the floor fell through means that it collapsed onto whatever had been beneath it.
- 2,741
3
votes
Is the phrase "Do not bring dangerous goods on board" correct?
The phrase you cite is perfectly good English, and "goods" is a traditional word to describe anything non-human carried by train. It would not look out of place on a train in Britain or ...
- 5,763
3
votes
Accepted
"leaves margin for interpretation"?
It would sound much more natural as “His ambiguity leaves room to interpret it as a good sign.”
To leave margin is not idiomatic English.
- 2,741
2
votes
Accepted
" How much before?" VS "How earlier" VS "How much earlier?"
Except for 2 (which is ungrammatical), they all could work, I'd probably opt for "How long before?"
Or a more "natural" conversational ploy is to suggest an answer and ask for ...
- 195k
2
votes
Accepted
How do you question yourself for your failing in the past: "Why couldn't I have done more?" VS "Why couldn't I do more?"
The Simple Past enquiry...
1: Why couldn't you do that yesterday?
...more naturally suits contexts where the speaker genuinely wants to know why you weren't able to do it then. But there's usually a ...
- 67.4k
1
vote
As bad as it sounds vs. As bad as all that sounds
The idiom you're missing is all that: a group of referents taken as a collective, often emphasizing its size or complexity. Syntactically (and semantically, up to a point), it functions the same as ...
- 3,190
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As bad as it sounds vs. As bad as all that sounds
Here, all that emphasizes the author’s view that the problems were many, whereas it typically conveys essentially a single problem, or a group of problems considered in total.
- 2,741
1
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As bad as it sounds vs. As bad as all that sounds
"As bad as it sounds" doesn't need to follow what it refers to, but could be synonymous with "as bad as that sounds".
"As bad as that sounds" refers to something specific ...
- 654
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What does it mean if the floor of a house "fall through"? Does it mean it goes down onto the next floor down?
In this case, due to surrounding context I would agree that he is describing a complete collapse. However, I would generally use "the floor fell through" to mean that some portion opened up, ...
- 4,424
1
vote
Any difference in meaning: "We see these families that ....." / "We see the families that ....?
The determiner these is used to refer to two or more people or things that are being (or have recently been) demonstrated. Perhaps the speaker is pointing at or otherwise indicating them, or they are ...
- 2,741
1
vote
"leaves margin for interpretation"?
While a little old fashioned, "margin for," "leaves margin for" and "leave a margin for" are all idiomatic English
"There's no margin for error."
"We need ...
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