3 ms·
"Don’t say currently if you can say now." Nice read.
by ashishbharthi 17y ago
"Don’t say currently if you can say now." Nice read.
- frossie 17y ago"Don’t say currently if you can say now." Hmm. To me, the most interesting thing about English is that there is a lot of additional meaning invested in what seems to be a choice of synonymous words. "I am not currently married" conveys to me "I am not married but I will/want to be". "I am not married now" means "I am not married but I used to be". No? [Disclaimer: English is not my first language, though by now I have the greatest fluency in it]
- lmkg 17y agoYou are correct, there are cases where "currently" carries a shade of meaning over "now." The author is not saying never to use "currently." He's saying that in cases where either are ok, use "now." English diction can give some very dense and precise meanings (try reading Poe!), but often people use the longer word simply because it's more ornamental rather than because of its specific connotations. This tends to hurt more than help, as many of his examples show.