fast X quick

[Lenka]

What is the difference between the words "fast" and "quick"?

[matilda]

fast in my opinion is used when we want to say that s.th lasted less than usual time. but quick means doing s.th without waisting time.i use FAST when i want to say that s.th used to last 2 hours. but i did it in an hour and a half.
but quick is the time i use the time in the best way ang do not waist time

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Lenka

What is the difference between the words "fast" and "quick"?

Fast means tightly secured (as in He made the boat fast to a tree on the riverbank), whereas quick means alive (as in He will come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead). So their meanings are quite distinct .

But in the sense of "speedy" their meanings are harder to distinguish. They mean more or less the same, but I'd guess that fast is more often used attibutively and quick is more often used predicatively: a fast train is quick. (This is by no means a hard and fast rule, though.)

I think the idea of time is involved too. If something is quick, it's done in a short time; if something is fast, it just moves er quickly.

What you need is a list of collocations; I'll work on it.

b
ps Don't worry about my first paragraph, Lenka. Those meanings are pretty rare.

[Lenka]

Thank you very much, Bob! By the way, I don't understand the first paragraph at all... But that doesn't matter. I guess it isn't used that much, is it?

[BobK]

Here's my list. I think the pattern I suggested in my first post in this thread doesn't hold up - I found more attributive uses for quick than for fast.

b

[Lenka]

Oh, you're so nice, Bob!

I'll go through the text now and if I don't understand anything, I'll ask you, OK? Thanks!

(By the way, have a look at the previous sentence "if I don't understand anything..." - is it a right way to express something like "if I don't understand "this or that"..."? Or does it mean "If I understand nothing"? Shall I rather use "something" instead of anything?)

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Lenka

Oh, you're so nice, Bob!

I'll go through the text now and if I don't understand anything, I'll ask you,

Originally Posted by Lenka

OK? Thanks!

(By the way, have a look at the previous sentence "if I don't understand anything..." - is it a right way to express something like "if I don't understand "this or that"..."? Or does it mean "If I understand nothing"? Shall I rather use "something" instead of anything?)

"if I don't understand anything" is fine, though it'd be slightly more colloquial to say "if there's anything [in it] I don't understand..." . The word 'something' would work in those contexts as well, but it'd limit you to not understanding only one thing.

b

[Lenka]

Originally Posted by BobK

"if I don't understand anything" is fine, though it'd be slightly more colloquial to say "if there's anything [in it] I don't understand..." . The word 'something' would work in those contexts as well, but it'd limit you to not understanding only one thing.

b

Anyway, I was taught, that if we say e.g. "I can't see anything" it means "I can see nothing. Right?

Then, how can the sentence "If I don't understand anything" mean "if there's anything I don't understand..."?