Nothing but

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Miner49'er

@ Tdol



Is this the same as "splitting hairs" ?

Tdol was just suggesting something along the lines of: 'I can remember the days when guitarists knew more than three chords. And you could hear the words. And songs had a good tune. And ...'

At least, I think that's what he meant.

b

[Miner49'er]

Ok for the whole sentence

But if you just look at the expression

and maybe I'm showing my age

?

[Miner49'er]

Can you please give another example sentence which has that particular expression into it.

It still confuses poor old miner

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Miner49'er

Can you please give another example sentence which has that particular expression into it.

It still confuses poor old miner

Maybe I'm showing my age, but when I saw Dire Straits live I paid £0.75 to get in.

(This is true; it was 1978 and they were playing at a pub in Fulham.) The point of the expression is that only an older person could have done/witnessed that.

b

[Miner49'er]

Right, I got it now, it's straight forward, not an idiom.

Thanks again

[JSmiley]

Originally Posted by Tdol

Nothing but the song is good about this band.

Mind you, and maybe I'm showing my age, shouldn't they have more than one song?

Nothing but that song is good about this band.

.. and then Tdol doesnt need to worry!

Belly T:
Its really kind of akward to do this using the word 'nothing.' A native speaker would prefer to use one of many related expressions: anything, the only thing, the one thing ...

We can use an absolutely atrocious (but fairly common) double negative colloquialism too:

There isn't nothing but that one song that's good about that band. (imagine a southwestern potato farmer with a grade 4 education)

[eflnow]

Originally Posted by BobK

Yes, I thought that might be the sort of thing. But it doesn't fit the specification: 'start with Nothing but'. Using your words, but fitting the spec, gives the incorrect Nothing but their song is what we like about the band

b

That definitely is wrong and that's why I didn't word it that way. I offered this as a solution since the student was not satisfied with the previous ones.

[Ouisch]

Originally Posted by Miner49'er

Can you please give another example sentence which has that particular expression into it.

It still confuses poor old miner

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I remember when 45s referred to records and not guns. (Note: in the US, seven inch singles were/are referred to as "45s" because they played at 45rpm. Of course, vinyl records have now gone the way of the dinosaurs.)

BobK: The first time I saw Queen in concert (1977), my ticket had a face value of $9 (I still have the stub). I paid a whopping $15 from a scalper to get a seat in the 11th row, though.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Ouisch

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I remember when 45s referred to records and not guns. (Note: in the US, seven inch singles were/are referred to as "45s" because they played at 45rpm. Of course, vinyl records have now gone the way of the dinosaurs.)
...

We use '45' like that too; and indeed '78'. I always preferred 78s; you could put them on top of a bowl, fill it with boiling water, and make a flower pot. Then this new-fangled 'vinyl' stuff came along.

But I think we're straying a bit from the point of this string.

b

[Belly T]

Nah, I mean, you guys could rewrite the sentence begins with:
Nothing but