Enough

[Tdol]

;-)

 

[RonBee]

I think either is possible, but enough time is more usual. I think time enough is an example of inversion (change in the normal structure of a phrase) that is done for effect. Example:

• There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

What say you, teacher?

 

[Tdol]

I agree and voted for this. With 'time', this usage is fairly common. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

Did you vote for the first one or the third one?

:?:

 

[Tdol]

3 ;-)

 

[RonBee]

I voted for the first one.

 

[Tdol]

It's the safest answer, but in a thread with space for further comment, I felt the third option was OK.;-)

 

[RonBee]

From a Google search:

• enough time -- 651,000
  time enough -- 58,300

 

[Tdol]

The first form is the standard one and follows the general rule of enough + noun, but the other form does show that it is not a fixed rule.;-)

 

[Isra]

enough time: I voted...and I was wrong..

 

[csharp]

enough + nouns: I have enough time to go to the station.
adj + enough : I'm old enough to solve my problem.

 

[Epica]

I think either is possible, but enough time is more usual. I think time enough is an example of inversion (change in the normal structure of a phrase) that is done for effect. Example:

• There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

What say you, teacher?

i agree with you enough time is more usual.

 

[Ashok K Thapa]

I voted time enough....:-D

 

[CaRpE_dIeM]

I also voted for "enough time"

 

[JACOOL]

I think both are correct, yet the first one"enough time" sounds more familiar.

 

[.]

enough time: I voted...and I was wrong..

It is not possible to be wrong on this poll and I would dearly love to know why this very enigmatic phrasing was chosen to teach English learners and what was the intention of the lesson.
English is sprinkled with so many iconic references to time enough that I would always choose it in preference to enough time as I think it sounds more elegent.
We have already been referred to Kenny Rogers and his very famous song The Gambler.
Robert A Heinlein wrote a seminal book in the 60s called Time Enough For Love.
I can not place it but 'time enough' sounds like a Shakespearean construction.

What is the point of this poll? It has already left at least one English learner feeling unnecessarily sad and questioning of their English ability.

Is there a message hidden here that my almost 50 years of English can not divine??

.,,

 

[Delmobile]

Well, when it's being used as an adjective, it would ordinarily come before the noun anyway, wouldn't it? Perhaps the point is to test one's knowledge of the fact that it sometimes follows the noun, for poetic effect? (And why is that, anyway? Times like this I wish I was a teacher, perhaps I might know. You can say "bread enough" but not "bread stale." Is it because it indicates amount?)

.,,, I think conversing with you must be delightful if you take such care to be elegant as to choose to say "time enough" whenever the opportunity arises. Please do not be sad. And re the Bard, are you maybe thinking of Marvell?

[native speaker & writer, not a teacher]

 

[blouen]

I voted for "enough time" for it sounds so familiar though I feel I read of "time enough" somewhere in some of my books.

 

[.]

.,,, I think conversing with you must be delightful if you take such care to be elegant as to choose to say "time enough" whenever the opportunity arises. Please do not be sad. And re the Bard, are you maybe thinking of Marvell?

My thoughts are that this will be an ephemeral discourse.
I have been here just about long enough to figure out that this joint is the same as the past three I have been in and the tense indicated indicates the current state of affairs between the parties concerned.
I do not care for mum and dad looking over my shoulder and I can feel maiden aunts in this place as everywhere on the suspiciously moral morally suspicious fecklessely inconsistent web.

I have noted some very strange definitions of idioms and phrases pontificated from upon high with eager learners just lapping it up but I would fail the question not the student in many cases. My guess is that I am shortly to become persona non gratia but your compliment has not fallen on deaf ears and has very much improved an otherwise very grey old day for me.
Thanks mate.

.,,

 

[Tdol]

Is there a message hidden here that my almost 50 years of English can not divine??

How about the Either [please explain] option, which seems to have passed you by? Some might feel that this, together with its being in the section for Advanced learners, could suggest that the intention of the poll was to go beyond the low level rule that many are taught about word order with enough and to promote discussion. :shock: