It is getting on for 11 years since.....

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The following sentence is taken from The Independent:

It is getting on for 11 years since I started interviewing celebrated sporting figures for The Independent, and I am often asked to name my favourite subject.

My question is this:

Why is it "It is getting on for 11 years since....." and not "It has been getting on for 11 years since....."?

Thank you.

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@paok1970,

"It is getting on"...idiom meaning: Time is coming up to total eleven years ... ...

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"Getting on for" can always be replaced by "nearly" or "almost" (usually some round number or exact quantity)

His car cost getting on for twenty thousand pounds.

That rocks weighs getting on for ten tons.

In 2009, the 21st century was getting on for ten years old; in 2019 it will be getting on for twenty years old.

A cup of coffee for four dollars and eighty cents? That's getting on for five dollars!

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@centrox,

Paok, Cen is dead right 99.8%'v the time but just once in a while....
...and almost every time 'f'we disagree, 's cause he's east and I'm west

We'd say"'it's gettin' on 11," or more likely just "it's gettin' 11' "

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@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

but just once in a while....

Are you challenging what I wrote? I promise you, I know what I am talking about.

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@centrox,

Hi Cen, no not'tall !! I suspect every time the diff is in where we live

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@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

...and almost every time 'f'we disagree, 's cause he's east and I'm west

Centrox lives in Bristol, which, like America, is west of the Greenwich Meridian.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Centrox lives in Bristol, which ... is west of the Greenwich Meridian.

2.5879 degrees West longitude to be exact. About 120 miles. It does seem as if "getting on for" is best known to British English speakers. Americans often say "going on". Oxford Dictionaries has this. with some real-world examples:

Quote:

getting on for

PHRASE

British

Approaching (a specified time, age, or amount); almost.

‘there are getting on for 700 staff’

‘It's getting on for three weeks since I placed my order and still it hasn't shown up.’

‘The flat, slowly but surely, had been filling with gas (with me in it) for getting on for fourteen hours.’

‘He's getting on for 80 but it doesn't stop him doing anything.’

‘At that rate, given current housing densities that could mean getting on for 500 affordable homes included in the development.’

‘The existing reactors are getting on for 30 to 40 years old and shutdown cannot be long delayed.’

‘I have not seen any use as a haulage yard for getting on for two years.’

‘Still, all that was, frighteningly, getting on for 20 years ago.’

‘The heavy-duty spoked wheels are getting on for 1m across, some broken, but many intact and some even still attached to their axles.’

‘He was a chap who was getting on for 50, I should think, a lieutenant quartermaster, not a fighting man at all, and yet he'd brought up all these rations.’

‘But the turbines are, by their very nature, big - getting on for 300 ft tall.’

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@izzythepush,

Quote:

Centrox lives in Bristol

Thanks Iz but where's that

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@dalehileman,

It's outside.

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Quote:
Centrox lives in Bristol
Thanks Iz but where's that

https://images2.imgbox.com/be/23/xbKeIzNP_o.jpg

Bristol is a "city and county".

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Quote:

It's outside.

'Susu, Iz, made my day, maybe tomorrow too

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@centrox,

Quote:

Bristol is a "city and county"

Thanks Cen, 'susu, goin' 2 all that trouble from somebody 'sig'rt's me

Cen sure like-t- know more aboucha; judging from (1) lang'v Prof (2) Tags a. physics, b.^ tea, I'd'v's'posed Far East somewhere. But then noticed 'Location: Timbuctoo' Like I was askin' above, where in heck's that

2 Replies

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

But then noticed 'Location: Timbuctoo' Like I was askin' above, where in heck's that

Have you tried Google?

1 Reply

@centrox,

Quote:

tried Google?

Wow Cen you got me there, shows how I'm so much lazier'n mostaya. But I've found that sometimes the a2k partipi will provide an almost immediate ans, like w/ Bristol above

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

It's in Mali. It's been in the news quite recently, trouble with militant extremists vandalising sacred tombs.

0 Replies

In England, Timbuctoo used to be another way of saying "the end of the earth" or "the back of beyond", a kind of generic "somewhere a very long way away". If us kids were making a lot of noise, my mother might say "I bet they can hear you in Timbuctoo!"

It comes from the days of African exploration by people like Doctor Livingstone. To get to Timbuctoo you had to go by sea or trek for weeks across the Sahara in a camel train.

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@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Quote:
tried Google?
I've found that sometimes the a2k partipi will provide an almost immediate ans, like w/ Bristol above

That's because we are sometimes inclined to indulge your laziness, especially if doing so might afford some amusement. However, that indulgence has its limits.

1 Reply

@centrox,

Quote:

inclined to indulge your laziness,.... that indulgence has its limits.

Cen don't become one'v'th' TAT's

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It is getting on for 11 years since.....

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