Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner12]

Hello, teachers!!

(1) We are all more or less selfish.
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What does "more or less" mean? I looked it up in the dictionary and found that it meant (a) to some extent, (b) about.

However, I am not sure about the sentence from the meanings of (a) and (b).

Could you help me?

Thank you in advance.

[EnglishRaven]

"to some extent" and "about" have the same general meaning: somewhere vaguely in the middle. Don't allow yourself to be confused by other possible meanings of "about" (for example, "What's this story about?").

It's easy to substitute "to some extent" into most sentences where "more or less" might be used.

Substituting "about" with "more or less" is a little more difficult. One quick example I can think of is "I'm more or less finished" = "I'm about finished".

"About" doesn't really work as a substitute for your original phrase. "We are all about selfish" wouldn't make any sense to a native speaker, and in fact would carry a different possible meaning ("what we all focus on or regard is being selfish").

I'm inclined to recommend sticking with "to some extent" as your reference, as I think it will be more useful and accurate in more utterances.

Anyone else got a suggestion or different take on this?

Cheers,

- Jason
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[learner12]

Dear EnglishRaven:

Thank you so much for your knack of handling an English word. It was great.

Take care and have a nice day.