[Grammar] a slim chance of

[Ashiuhto]

Which of the following sentences is acceptable?

1. My uncle set a record by running five kilometers backwards.
2. My uncle set a record by running backwards for five kilometers.

3. The test is so difficult that I don't even have a slim chance of passing it.
4. The test is so difficult that I even have no chance to pass it.

 

[bhaisahab]

Which of the following sentences is acceptable?

1. My uncle set a record by running five kilometers backwards.
2. My uncle set a record by running backwards for five kilometers.

3. The test is so difficult that I don't even have a slim chance of passing it.
4. The test is so difficult that I even have no chance to pass it.

2 and 3 are OK.

 

[emsr2d2]

I have no problem with #1.

 

[SoothingDave]

I have no problem with #1.

Me either.

 

[5jj]

Me either.

As a conservative speaker of BrE, I have a problem with that. ;-) I know it's acceptable in AmE, but it jars horribly with me. For me it has to be 'me neither'.

 

[SoothingDave]

I didn't think about it at all, so I guess that is my natural reaction.

If I worded it differently, I would have said "Neither do I."

 

[BobK]

tangent - vocabulary oddity that's just occurred to me:

When you have a slim chance of doing something you're more likely to succeed than if you had a fat chance of doing it (although it's still unlikely. If someone says you have a fat chance of doing something, they don't think you have 'a snowball's chance in hell'. ;-)

b