Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

… odd; … or so

Number + odd is used when the figure quoted may be slightly higher than the

actual number. A hyphen is used when the expression is written:

We’ve got 

sixty

-

odd people coming later in the day.

They’ll charge 

thirty

-

odd pounds.

Number + head noun + or so/or thereabouts/or something are also used in such

situations. Or thereabouts is more formal than or so, and or something is the most

informal:

They’d been playing maybe, what, 

five minutes

or so.

OK, we’ll pay the higher deposit. What was it again? It was 

three hundred and

eighty 

pounds 

or thereabouts, wasn’t it?

It weighed about 

twenty kilos

or something.

Odd

is not used in this way:

They’ll only take 

twenty minutes

or so, won’t they.

(They’ll only take twenty minutes odd, won’t they?)

… or; … -ish

Or

between numerals also indicates that it would not normally be appropriate to

specify more precisely:

It’ll cost you 

five

or

six

pounds to park but it’ll save you a long walk into the

town.

The suffix -ish is also used, especially in informal speech:

So, er, we’re meeting

seven

-ish or maybe a bit later.

I think he’s 

fifty

-ish but he looks a lot younger actually.

204 | From utterance to discourse

Cambridge Grammar of English

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Exaggeration

Deliberately exaggerated reference to numbers and quantities is another form of

approximation:

A: How much would it cost to re-lay the lawns?

B: It’ll cost thousands. I don’t think we should even think about it yet.

I’ve told him 

hundreds of times to put the alarm clock on but he just doesn’t

listen.

She’s very well qualified. She’s got 

loads and loads of letters after her name and

qualifications and things.

Similar expressions include:

Clusters

Vague markers and approximations sometimes cluster together:

The room will take 

up to two hundred or so people, won’t it, or something like

that?

✪

More or less 

is common as a vague expression in spoken language, but it is

hardly ever used before numerical expressions. It is generally used to refer

vaguely to completion of an action or event, or to hedge (i.e. be less assertive

about) a description of something. It may be used before or after the phrase it

refers to. It often means something like ‘virtually’, ‘practically’, ‘just about’:

I think she’s sort of 

more or less finished with it.

They’re 

more or less the same.

They’ve got everything, 

more or less.

They’ll charge thirty

-odd pounds.

(They’ll charge more or less thirty pounds.)

A–Z

18 Around, round; 49 Like; 71 So; 74 Thing, stuff; 77 Whatever

ages

crowds

dozens

heaps

lots

masses

oceans

tons

zillions