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Thread: last but one

  1. #11
    MikeNewYork's Avatar
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    Default Re: last but one

    Quote Originally Posted by Tdol View Post
    Maybe it's a BrE/AE difference, but I think that 'last but one' would be more common that 'next to last' in BrE. I checked with the British National Corpus and they gave 2 for next to last and 22 for last but one. They also gave 161 for penultimate, many of which appear to be spoken instances.
    Google:

    Web Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 300,000 for "last but one".

    Web Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 1,390,000 for "next to last".
    Web Results 1 - 10 of about 4,430,000 for "penultimate" [definition].

    I find the last to be surprising.

  2. #12
    nyggus is offline Key Member
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    Default Re: last but one

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeNewYork View Post
    Google:

    Web Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 300,000 for "last but one".

    Web Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 1,390,000 for "next to last".
    Web Results 1 - 10 of about 4,430,000 for "penultimate" [definition].

    I find the last to be surprising.
    But note that penultimate is often a name of a company, 'typeface design group,' bar, or other things. It is, then, not an objective comparison. One should always be careful when using Google for comparing the use of several words.

    Best,
    Nyggus

  3. #13
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    Default Re: last but one

    Quote Originally Posted by nyggus View Post
    But note that penultimate is often a name of a company, 'typeface design group,' bar, or other things. It is, then, not an objective comparison. One should always be careful when using Google for comparing the use of several words.

    Best,
    Nyggus
    It was still surprising to find over 4 million pages.

  4. #14
    nyggus is offline Key Member
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    Default Re: last but one

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeNewYork View Post
    It was still surprising to find over 4 million pages.
    Yes, indeed, it was!

  5. #15
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    Default Re: last but one

    Quote Originally Posted by nyggus View Post
    Yes, indeed, it was!

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