Question
Updated on
7 February
- Japanese
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
What does after all it was sort of a pointless existence to begin with.
what does to begin with mean？ mean?
What does after all it was sort of a pointless existence to begin with.
what does to begin with mean？ mean?
what does to begin with mean？ mean?
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7 February
Featured answer
- English (US)
@yhjyedc "He only walked into the restaurant with one dollar to begin with, so it isn't surprising he didn't have enough money to pay for dinner."
"He was a strong man to begin with, so going to the gym daily only made him even more unstoppable."
in both examples, "to begin with" explains how the subject in the sentence was before something happened.
In the first example, he walked into the restaurant with only one dollar, so of course he couldn't pay for dinner. in the second example, he was already strong before going to the gym.
Highly-rated answerer
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- Japanese
- English (US)
@yhjyedc this is a way of saying "overall" or "before the situation changed" or "initially"
"We are expecting 20cm of rainfall today! The ground is already very wet to begin with, so we expect major flooding." this means the ground was wet already before the rain even started.
Highly-rated answerer
- Japanese
- Japanese
- English (US)
@yhjyedc "He only walked into the restaurant with one dollar to begin with, so it isn't surprising he didn't have enough money to pay for dinner."
"He was a strong man to begin with, so going to the gym daily only made him even more unstoppable."
in both examples, "to begin with" explains how the subject in the sentence was before something happened.
In the first example, he walked into the restaurant with only one dollar, so of course he couldn't pay for dinner. in the second example, he was already strong before going to the gym.
Highly-rated answerer
- Japanese
- English (US)
- Japanese
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