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old hand
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I haven't had a chance to say Hi yet wordjunkie - so Hi!! And welcome. As for "likely", you'll likely  find me a lone voice here, but my university professor was dead set against all "ly" words. The argument was that they take a statement into the passive tense - when scientific articles should be more active. To my mind, "only" and "likely" sort of fall between the cracks though. Even so, I'd use "There is potential for rain" or "There's a chance of rain". I've moderated my stance to accept them in conversational english however. Anyway, the statement that it is probably unlikely that rain will actually happen is generally untrue!! stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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dead set against all "ly" words. ...they take a statement into the passive tense
I'm having some trouble seeing that argument. Can you think of an example, stales?
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Maybe passive isn't the right word? How about definitive? In stales speak, adverbs make a statement wishy washy.....
eg "Tall trees are generally found in valleys" is unacceptable to a scientist. The statement implies a lack of conviction as to its accuracy. They would be expected to write "Tall trees are found in valleys" or, if they couldn't prove this, they'd be expected to leave their pen capped until they established the facts.
Same example would apply for "usually", "actually", "really".
There's a politely heated thread on this somewhere in the archives....
Presumably you see what I'm really getting at?
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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Tall trees are (generally) found in valleys
Geesh! Tall trees are found in valleys !?! Are we saying that they are only found in valleys? Sometimes found in valleys? Generally found in valleys says to me that you are more likely [sic] to find them in valleys but you're not excluding other locations. Just plain bald "found in valleys" sounds wishy-washy to me.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Erosion favors development of trees in valleys, and endangers trees on high slopes.
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Carpal Tunnel
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TEd
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WJ:
Both constructions appear proper to me, at least in colloquial useage, and both are akin to "like as not", which to me has always meant better than a 50-50 chance.
Your raising this question made me think of the word apt. I would cheerfully say, "It is apt to rain today" as an alternative to "It is likely to rain today." And on the surface I'd be correct.
But glancing at a dictionary taught me that apt is more often used to indicate a natural or even an unnatural tendency to error or undesireable behavior. "I am apt to kill people when I get really angry." But "I am likely to remain calm when I get really angry."
Interesting. Thanks for bringing this up, as I learned something. And welcome to our little home away from home.
TEd
TEd
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stranger
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OP
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Thanks, Ted. Interesting. "Apt" seems to take the infinitive. Always.
Am I missing something by assuming that "likely" does, as well? Or should I just get with the flow of the language, moving forward, and re-tune my ears to accept "It will likely rain" instead of the more proper "It is likely to rain" ?
The good thing about our language is that it keeps on changing. The bad thing is that I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with it!
(And don't get me started on using the word "done" when the word "finished" is more appropriate!)
Okay, then, I'm done. (Yikes!)
--the grammarian troglodyte. Must be the rain, today!
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Carpal Tunnel
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A pair of somewhat similar words: Prone, and supine. I am prone to supine tolerance of my own faults.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Not much to be tolerated, dr. bill.
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