Timeline for Difference between "per" and "a"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 28, 2015 at 14:38 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Jay: Noting one of the examples in @Daniel's answer, I think you'd have a hard time convincing most people that Take two tablets three times a day was in any meaningful sense "short for" an underlying ...three times in a day. Realistically, including in there would be so unusual syntactically that I'd feel compelled to look for an unusual meaning (perhaps that you only take the medicine for a maximum of 24 hours, I dunno). So I think you should seriously consider either deleting this answer, or finding some additional support for the position (if you still hold it! :) | |
| Dec 28, 2015 at 3:53 | comment | added | Jay | @FumbleFingers Yeah, it was a while ago. The question just showed up with a new comment or a vote or something. | |
| Dec 28, 2015 at 1:01 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Jay: I can't say I remember for sure (it was over 3 years ago, after all! :) but I think at the time I didn't realise all three Wikipedia pages for Christmas Comes But Once a Year (including mine in that earlier link) were titles (of a film, a radio play, and a TV episode). But my link in this comment is to a shedload of C19 written instances (when it certainly was "good grammar" :) | |
| Dec 27, 2015 at 23:09 | comment | added | Jay | @BrettReynolds Hmm, but in "I'm going this week", "this week" acts as an adverb saying when you are going. But in "goes three times a week", I don't see any relationship established between "a week" and either "goes" or "three times". | |
| Dec 27, 2015 at 23:06 | comment | added | Jay | @FumbleFingers Headlines and titles are not generally the best models for good grammar. | |
| Jun 26, 2012 at 2:22 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Christmas Comes But Once a Year. Or should that be "once in a year"? | |
| Mar 22, 2012 at 20:46 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | It is perfectly normal for noun phrases to function as adjuncts (or what school grammar bizarrely likes to call "adverb phrases"). It happens all over the place: this week, I'm going; I was paid twice this week, etc. That's what's happening with a week. It's not wrong and it has nothing to do with prepositions. | |
| Mar 22, 2012 at 20:30 | comment | added | Mark Beadles | See my comment to Brett - "a week" and similar forms are well-established in English, and came from abbreviation of the preposition "on". | |
| Mar 22, 2012 at 20:01 | history | answered | Jay | CC BY-SA 3.0 |