[Idiom] Fool and his money are soon parted.

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Patryk

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First of all, it's my first post in this forum so I would like to say hi to everyone!

I'm a finance student and some time ago I found interesting idiom: A fool and his money are soon parted. I understand the idea and know what does it mean, but I'm wondering if it is possible to use it in past sentence.

Example:
I would like to write about someone who lost a fortune in short period of time. My problem is with word soon. In my opinion it doesn't sound good in past sentence. What about that: I know a guy who lost 1 000 000 Euro in two weeks - a fool and his money were parted.
Is it ok?

I would be really thankful for answer.
Sorry for mistakes!
 

2006

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First of all, it's my first post in this forum so I would like to say hi to everyone!
Hi and welcome.
I'm a finance student and some time ago I found an interesting idiom: A fool and his money are soon parted. I understand the idea and know what [STRIKE]does[/STRIKE] it means, but I'm wondering if it is possible to use it in a sentence about the past.
Yes, you can.

Example:
I would like to write about someone who lost a fortune in short period of time. My problem is with the word "soon". In my opinion it doesn't sound good in a sentence about the past. What about that: That's not true.
I know a guy who lost 1,000,000 Euros in two weeks - a fool and his money (are)(were) soon parted. :tick:

!
2006
 

ackeiyword

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I think that as it is a saying ,it is better to use simple present tense.
 

2006

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I think that as it is a saying ,it is better to use simple present tense.

Yes, the saying is "...are soon parted."

But when one is talking about a specific incident, there is no reason one can't say '(Once again) a fool and his money were soon parted.'
 

Tdol

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I know a guy who lost 1 000 000 Euro in two weeks - a fool and his money were parted.
Is it ok?

That still seems like soon to me. Idioms are there for our benefit, so we can change the wording - many do not have absolute fixed wording anyway - so it's not wrong to adapt and customise them for particular instances.
 
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