Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Henmi]

I don't know what is the difference between "rate" and "ration".
Would you explain it showing some examples?

Health and fitness is one of the big current topics.
When I wanted to ask "what percentage is the fat of your body?"
I said " How much is your fat rate?"
My English teacher corrected it "fat ration".
I checked it in my dictionay but still don't know how to use them.

[obelix]

I do not think you can ask your question using either "rate" or "ration".
You can use a closely related word, "ratio", which means the (quantitative)relationship between two components. It can be given as a percentage, (20%) or a fraction (1/5th) or like this, (1:5).. (Spoken, "one to five")

"You could ask what is your (body) fat ratio?"

"What percentage of your body weight is (or consists of) fat?"
Would be another correct way to pose the question.

I think your teacher either misunderstood what you were trying to say. Or he/she was wrong.

The word "rate" has quite a lot of meanings, but in the context of the body and fat , you might want to ask, "at what rate does the body burn fat?"
This means "how fast does the body burn fat."

"Ration" means a fixed allowance of food etc..
"His daily ration was two slices of bread and a litre of water." for example.

[Henmi]

No, my teacher was not wrong.
I made a hearing mistake cause I have never heared the word "ratio".
Now I got it, but I feel I need to write proper expressions or words to make sure what we are talking about.
Thank you so much.