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Old 09-May-2007, 23:45
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Default OK=Fine?

If someone asks me not to go to him (=his house). Can I reply "Fine"? I mean, does "Fine" mean the same as "OK". here?

Last edited by asad hussain; 10-May-2007 at 00:19.
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Old 10-May-2007, 00:43
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Default Re: OK=Fine?

I don't think they're exactly the same actually.

In your example, OK is better than fine.

Fine (adj.)

"good or good enough"

It's really hard to explain the distinction.

Example #1:
"Could you come to my house?"
"Ok/sure"

Example #2:
-Could you come to my house? I should warn you it's very messy right now."
-Don't worry, that's fine.

-Could you come to house? I should warn you that you can only stay for one hour though.
-That's fine

Can you see the difference?

Also, you can use fine as in good enough. If you're not exactly pleased with the result but still think it's acceptable.

Example #3:
-I want you to clean your room before you head out.
-Fine

Here "fine" means that the person isn't exactly pleased about cleaning his room but will do it anyway.

If he said:

-I want you to clean your room before your head out.
-Ok

Here "ok", depending on the intonation could have different meaning. One of these meaning could be that the person think it's fair that he should clean his room and will do it. He doesn't consider the result unpleasant or unfair.
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