Is "of little valuable use" idiomatic English?

It would be hard to say without more context. "Of little use" is not uncommon, and neither is "of little value." The locution "of little valuable use" seems to be rather redundant.

Re: Is "of little valuable use" idiomatic English?


I have never heard that expression. I HAVE heard, "....................is of little use".

It's too literal and it means just what it says, so I would say it is not an idiom.

An idiom meaning the same thing as "little valuable use" might be "he was as valuable as a blind man at a beauty contest".

Sorry, Green Witch, but I said "idiomatic English" and not "an idiom".

Here's the definition I'm using:

idiomatic: using or relating to expressions that are natural to a native speaker.

I've never heard that usage, M56, and you are really splitting hairs for someone looking for language help.

There are no grammatical concerns, M56. It follows the right word order for English. How common it is isn't really a concern except to address the concern, "how common it is".

New collocations are uttered daily. I can imagine a scenario where it COULD be used, so in that sense it is idiomatic.

A: What about this dohickey? Will it work?

B: For this task, it's of little valuable use. It would be highly valuable for other endeavors.

I feel that "of value" and "of use" are synonymous. Therefore, "of valuable use" would contain redundancy.

Never heard which use, Roger?

Note these:

OF LITTLE USE

OF LITTLE VALUE

OF LITTLE IMPORTANCE

OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE

OF LITTLE INTEREST

OF LITTLE SIGNIFICANCE

OF LITTLE HELP

OF LITTLE MORE

OF LITTLE RELEVANCE

OF LITTLE CONCERN

OF LITTLE COMFORT

If you intend to make it up as you go along, and to argue with native speakers, i am inclined to take Roger's view, and wonder why you've asked us.

So, I have to take everything that people offer do I?

BTW, I am a native speaker. If you, as a native speaker, do not need to ask questions regarding usage of your own language, that's fine, but sometimes I need clarification on certain utterances. I hope that is OK with you.

That's fine with me. And if you are asserting that you are a native speaker of English, i would ask where you came up with something as silly as "of little more" in such a context. An expression such as "it is of little more value than is the previous example" would make sense. It is a rather odd expression, however, to have included in your list, and does not stand alone--it needs a substantive to work, such as "value." An expression such as "of little value" or "of little use" already has the substantive.

Dear, dear. I can see you need a few lessons in manners. The "of little more" was a typo and I cannot now edit that post.

And you assert that it is an example of bad manners not to have known you intended to edit and could not? You have an odd notion of manners . . .

If I may interject for a moment. Native speakers are, of course not required to reply to any of these questions.

But, you have to understand that native speakers, those not seriously attempting to analyse how language works, sometimes, [often ?] feel put upon/get a bit touchy, techy, I believe for BrE, when questioned more deeply about their comments on any issue of language.

The truth is, none of us have exceptional analytical skills when it comes to "seeing" thru language. Language is something that is extremely complex. The vast majority of people simply cannot grasp just how complex lannguage is.

Language scientists study and ponder a great deal about semantic and syntactic differences and sometimes they don't reach satisfactory conclusions.

How do we, really, think about it, how do we use this finite group of structures, to talk of an infinite number of things, and what's more amazing, we do it in such a seamless fashion.

We don't think about grammatical choices, we merely think about what we want to say and the grammatical choices form almost by magic and leap out with a rapidity that is nothing short of astonishing.

So don't feel like you're being attacked if someone presses you a bit on why you feel such and such. Actually M56's way is not a scientific way to measure language use, but it can provide clues to point him/her in the right direction, aiding further analysis.

This was the bad manners part: i would ask where you came up with something as silly as "of little more" in such a context

Is it normal to call a total stranger's choices "silly"?

Only if they actually are silly.

As I said, you need lessons in manners and socialising.

One assumes that you consider yourself preeminently qualified to provide said lessons . . .