[Grammar] By the moment or by moment.

[gurpreetgill4u]

Hi,

I need some help with this.

A:It is same as or it is the same as ?
B:By the moment or by moment ?

If you need full sentence they are
1:It is the same as "to be on cloud nine".
2:It is getting worse by the moment ?

Can you please explain ?

Why did we use definite article instead of zero ?

As far as I can remember I did not know what moment that person was referring to in B so how come we have used THE ?

 

[teechar]

You need the definite article in both. It's idiomatic.
For the second, I would say "by the minute" instead of "by the moment."

 

[gurpreetgill4u]

So is it alright to say "we will measure the duration of test by the minute". By the way it seems completely strange to me so I would rather say we will measure the time by minutes.

 

[teechar]

No, it doesn't work for that context. I was referring to "It is getting worse by the minute."

The expression "by the minute" is used to describe a situation changing very rapidly.

 

[Rover_KE]

Note that unlike 'minute', 'moment' is an indeterminate period of time.