Which of the following expressions would you, as a native speaker, expect to find in 1) a gardening magazine or website and 2) in travel writing?
a) in winter
b) during the winter months
a) in winter
b) during the winter months
winter words
I often hear both 'in the winter' and 'in winter'.
Why can the article be ommited.
Why can the article be ommited.
”in winter" usually refers to this year's winter only, and "in the winter" refers to wintertime in general.
<<”in winter" usually refers to this year's winter only, ><
!!
It doesn't snow here in winter.
I always wear a warm coat in winter.
We go to the mountains in winter.
!!
It doesn't snow here in winter.
I always wear a warm coat in winter.
We go to the mountains in winter.
<<Which of the following expressions would you, as a native speaker, expect to find in 1) a gardening magazine or website and 2) in travel writing?
a) in winter
b) during the winter months >>
Either one, as well as "in the winter", "during the winter" "in/during the colder part of the year" and any number of other permutations.
Why do you ask?
a) in winter
b) during the winter months >>
Either one, as well as "in the winter", "during the winter" "in/during the colder part of the year" and any number of other permutations.
Why do you ask?
<Either one, as well as "in the winter", "during the winter" "in/during the colder part of the year" and any number of other permutations.
Why do you ask? >
I read a Corpus Linguistics report on those expressions which said that the first one was normally found in travel writing and the second in gardening magazines. I wanted to see how "ordinary" folk would respond.
Why do you ask? >
I read a Corpus Linguistics report on those expressions which said that the first one was normally found in travel writing and the second in gardening magazines. I wanted to see how "ordinary" folk would respond.
Hmm. This is one of those things that's only obvious once I already have the answer. Before Pos said which was found where, I didn't see much difference, though I hadn't given terribly much thought to it. But now that I see that travel magazines use "in winter" and gardening magazines use "in the winter months", it makes perfect sense to me.
A gardener is going to be more focused on the duration of the winter than a traveler is. A traveler can go on vacation for two weeks and then go back home and forget about it. A gardener is going to be concerned about the whole winter: those flowers, crops, or whatever must survive the whole winter. You may not be traveling in winter for "months", but your garden will be there that long -- at least, you hope.
Moreover, you might think of gardening in terms of months more often... they're a convenient unit of time for measuring the progress of a garden. Vacations and traveling typically doesn't occur over that sort of time span... some people travel all the time, of course, but most people just take a single relatively short vacation now and then.
- Kef
A gardener is going to be more focused on the duration of the winter than a traveler is. A traveler can go on vacation for two weeks and then go back home and forget about it. A gardener is going to be concerned about the whole winter: those flowers, crops, or whatever must survive the whole winter. You may not be traveling in winter for "months", but your garden will be there that long -- at least, you hope.
Moreover, you might think of gardening in terms of months more often... they're a convenient unit of time for measuring the progress of a garden. Vacations and traveling typically doesn't occur over that sort of time span... some people travel all the time, of course, but most people just take a single relatively short vacation now and then.
- Kef
I hasten to add that this kind of thinking in retrospect -- after having already been given the answer -- might just be some form of rationalization. For all I know, if Pos had mixed up the two answers and given them the other way around, I might still have invented an explanation that was also perfectly obvious to me...
Nevertheless, I think it's a decent hypothesis.
- Kef
Nevertheless, I think it's a decent hypothesis.
- Kef
I'm often wary of trusting information from corpora, so I wanted to see what natives would say. Then again, I don't often trust native intuition. Ah well...
Since you trust nothing, you will never attain true mastery of English. You will always be confused as to what is correct and what isn't.