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Many a

从 Hyperboreus, 2012年2月25日

讯息： 5

语言: English

Hyperboreus (显示个人资料) 2012年2月25日上午12:15:33

Forigite

pdenisowski (显示个人资料) 2012年2月25日上午12:57:36

Hyperboreus:Hi native speakers.

What is the difference between:

"This city has suffered many crises."

and

"This city has suffered many a crisis." ?
The second one sounds older or more literary / poetic. To me there is no difference in meaning between them.

Amike,

Paul

sudanglo (显示个人资料) 2012年2月25日上午11:23:38

If there is a recognizable difference it would logically have to be along the lines of the frequency of occurrence of a single event as opposed to the occurrence of multiple instances.

In 'the city has suffered many crises', several crises could have simultaneously occurred (or followed one after another) rather than it frequently being the case that the city was in crisis.

This distinction is perhaps clearer with:

1. There's many a slip between cup and lip
2. There are many slips between cup and lip. (not the usual idiom, only given for purposes of argument)

1. It often happens that you don't achieve your goal.

2. This suggests - There can be many impedances along the way to achieving your goal.

Hyperboreus (显示个人资料) 2012年2月25日下午2:50:12

Forigite

sudanglo (显示个人资料) 2012年2月25日下午5:36:58

Yes, Hyperboreus that is my analysis based on logical reasoning.

HOWEVER, you should note that 'many a' is somewhat fossilized in certain expressions, and normally one would be quite happy to accept some imprecision in simply using 'many', letting extra-linguistic features resolve any perceived ambiguity

I just thought of this example:

I've smoked many a cigarette after sex

Can we say in Esperanto mi fumis multan cigaredon post ....? I think not. But, of course, we can say Mi ofte fumis cigaredon post...

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