half as long as

[tufguy]

Hi guys,

Are these sentenses correct,

1) croc's tail is half of its body length / half as long as its body length..

2) He weights half of his friends weight/ he is half as heavy as his friend/ he has half weight to his friend.

 

[tufguy]

Please reply friends.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would say: A crocodile's tail is half as long as its body. He weighs half as much as his friend.

 

[Rover_KE]

Do crocodiles have friends?:-?

 

[Matthew Wai]

Is it correct to say "half the length/the weight of"?

Do crocodiles have friends?

The OP said "its body" but "his friend", so "his" does not refer to the crocodile.


Not a teacher.

 

[Raymott]

There's still some potential ambiguity in an animal having a tail half the length of its body - depending on whether an animal's body includes its tail. "A crocodile's tail is half the length of its body" could mean that the tail is either one half or one third of its total length.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I think it is pretty clear that the intent was to differentiate the tail from the body

 

[tufguy]

Was I correct?

 

[Rover_KE]

No. You have been given suggestions for improvements to your sentences.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Is it correct to say "half the length/the weight of"?


The OP said "its body" but "his friend", so "his" does not refer to the crocodile.


Not a teacher.

Matthew, Rover's comment was a joke. ;-)

 

[Matthew Wai]

It's a pity that non-native speakers like me may be unable to discern whether a comment is a joke.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Not a pity. It is normal. Discerning humor is one of the most difficult part of any language. That is why I pointed it out to you. The way I wrote the two sentences could have led someone to believe they were connected.

 

[Roman55]

I think it is pretty clear that the intent was to differentiate the tail from the body

I am not a teacher.

When I read sentence 1) my first thought was of the ambiguity that Raymott mentioned in post #6.

Minimal effort and the tiniest bit of research revealed that the tail of the estuarine (saltwater) crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is 49.5% of its total body length; the longest of any crocodile.

I think that 49.5% is close enough to half for the purposes of this thread.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Well, you may be right, but with my limited research I notice that you picked the crocodile with the longest tail of any of the species. For me that means that other species have tails that represent a smaller percentage of the entire beast. But back to the sentence. What was pretty clear to me was not pretty clear to you and Ray. I guess that is the definition of ambiguity.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Yes, I suppose it is.

The real question is, which crocodile was tufguy talking about?

 

[Raymott]

Yes, I suppose it is.

I'm not sure it is. An ambiguous sentence can theoretically be recognised by everyone who reads it as being ambiguous. Deciding that an ambiguous sentence has a clear meaning seems to be something else.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Good point. I should have said, yes, I suppose that is one definition.

I recognised the sentence as being ambiguous, which means that I could see that there were at least two ways of interpreting it.

We submit a sentence to two people. Person A thinks it means X, and person B thinks it means Y. They both believe the sentence to be clear. Neither of them is aware that a different interpretation is possible, yet they have demonstrated that the sentence is ambiguous. A person's inability to detect ambiguity is, after all, a characteristic of the person and not of the sentence.

Getting back to the crocodiles, I think that the assertion in post #14 that shorter tails in other species of crocodile means that they represent smaller percentages of the total length needs to be supported by some facts. What are the total lengths of these other species? Put a shorter tail on an even shorter crocodile and the percentage goes up.

 

[MikeNewYork]

<<<Put a shorter tail on an even shorter crocodile and the percentage goes up.>>>

Put a shorter tail on a slightly shorter crocodile and it doesn't.

 

[Raymott]

These pictures tend to suggest that the tail of a crocodile is part of its body: (except for ems's example above)
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=..._distinguish_them_from_amphibians.php;650;361

 

[emsr2d2]

These pictures tend to suggest that the tail of a crocodile is part of its body:

This one's is detachable!

Edit: Apologies - both Raymott and I posted, then deleted and then reposted replies so it's now a little out of order!