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Forums: English, Esl, Grammar, Efl, English Idioms
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I wish I were as sure about any __ thing as he is about every single thing.

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 2,852 • Replies: 24

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@oristarA,

I wish I were as sure about any single thing as he is about every single thing.

"Single" would fit with emphasis on "any" and "every".

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@fresco,

fresco wrote:

I wish I were as sure about any single thing as he is about every single thing.

"Single" would fit with emphasis on "any" and "every".

Thank you.

But I'm afraid that using two singles in a row seems not perfect.

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@oristarA,

We can't help you with iq tests here.

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@oristarA,

It seems fine to native speakers. Wink

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just leave it as a space between "any" and "thing" and it works. Or just write it anything and it works. "Every single thing" is just an intensified "everything", but I;ve never seen it written before--it's usually just spoken. I guess it's kind of idiomatic. You could say "Every single person in that room voted for Obama", for example, and it means that everyone in the room voted for Obama, not that all the unmarried people (i.e. "single person")in the room voted for him. It's in effect a little more emphatic a way of saying "everything".

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@Miss L Toad,

Miss L Toad wrote:

We can't help you with iq tests here.

Honey, you can always help yourself.

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@oristarA,

I wonder whether or not "I wish I were as sure about any one thing as he is about every single thing" works.

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@oristarA,

Yes. It works.

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@oristarA,

That definitely works.

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@oristarA,

Please fill in the gap:

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@oristarA,

I wish I were as sure about any ******* thing as he is about every single thing.

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@oristarA,

I wish I were as sure about any ole/old thing as he is about every single thing.

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@oristarA,

It seems to work best with nothing else added:

"I wish I were as sure about anything as he is about every single thing."

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@oristarA,

I'd say that is the correct response, and avoids using "single" twice. I'd go further and say that that is how most native speakers of English would fill in the blank.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

I'd say that is the correct response,

I'd say that that is the dumbest thing that you've said in quite some time, Set.

Quote:

and avoids using "single" twice.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Quote:

I'd go further and say that that is how most native speakers of English would fill in the blank.

Okay, maybe I was a little hasty above - maybe it was the second dumbest thing that you've said in quite some time.

Obviously, it depends on what the speaker wants to say.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT, I've told you before, anyone who agrees with me is ipso facto on the right track.

1 Reply

@McTag,

When I was teaching we had a worksheet for the kids to fill out with suitable adjectives. I was the one to point out that '*******' could easily take the place of all the adjectives. It's a useful back up word if you're feeling a bit tongue-tied, meeting someone important like the Queen or Doughie Squires.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

When I was teaching we had a worksheet for the kids to fill out with suitable adjectives. I was the one to point out that '*******' could easily take the place of all the adjectives. It's a useful back up word if you're feeling a bit tongue-tied, meeting someone important like the Queen or Doughie Squires.

Many civilized forums ban the use of the word *******. Once even I just used "fncking" to dodge the filter, I still got the warning from a moderator and my forum credit was reduced to 75% (that is, four times of such behavior - the usage of rude or vulgar words will lead to my account to be banned forum the forum).

1 Reply

@oristarA,

The use of italics was appropriate . . . this is anything but a civilized forum.

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