Teacher Discussion Forums

I am sure where "about" should be located in these two sentences...
in about three hours (0)
about in three hours (x)

But, not sure which one is right.
About at least 20 percent of population
At least about 20 percent of population

I would go for "at least about 20%". But it doesn't make much sense: most people would use "at least" for the lowest reasonable number and "at most" for the highest. About 20% is probably at least 17% and at most 23%, more or less.

But, not sure which one is right.
About at least 20 percent of population
At least about 20 percent of population

Both wrong.

Stephen Jones wrote:

But, not sure which one is right.
About at least 20 percent of population
At least about 20 percent of population

Both wrong.

But not here:

At least, about 20 percent of population

I'm intrigued by the use of "wrong" in the above posts, not that I disagree exactly.

We seem to be at a point between ungrammatical and lacking sense. If you really must say "There were at least about twenty people" it 's preferable to "There were about at least twenty people". The fact is that neither make much sense. But is the objection grammatical, always supposing that the writer has as clear an idea as his/her reader of the meaning of both "at least" and "about"?

Somebody thinks it means something: a surprising number of its Googles are patents. It's sufficiently vague and, oxymoronically, at the same time precise: "wherein the concentrate has a hydroxide ion concentration of at least about 7.5 moles per liter" is one of many.

"One fine day in the middle of the night,
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other."´

I find this with CPE writing. I'm having to "correct" the thought process as well as the English, when I can tell the first from the second.