[Grammar] a slim chance of

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Ashiuhto

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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

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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

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I have no problem with #1.
 

5jj

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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

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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

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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
 
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