How big is the fog in London

[GoodTaste]

Well, books about learning English in China say that British people love talking about weather, of which London's fog is a hot topic. Here's one sentence I just now translated it into English:

(1) How big is the fog in London.

Suspecting that it sounds Chinglish, I edited it into (2):

(2) How foggy it is in London.

(2) sounds more natural to me.

The question here is whether (1) is natural in English.

 

[Rover_KE]

[STRIKE]Well[/STRIKE] Books about learning English in China say that British people love talking about the weather, of which London's fog is a hot topic. No, it isn't. That was decades ago before smokeless zones became compulsory.

Here's one sentence I just now translated [STRIKE]it[/STRIKE] into English:

(1) How big is the fog in London?

Suspecting that it sounds Chinglish, I edited it into (2):

(2) How foggy [STRIKE]it[/STRIKE] is it in London?

(2) sounds more natural to me.

The question here is whether (1) is natural in English. Definitely not.

Note how to phrase your question and end it.

What sort of answer are you expecting to question 2?

 

[Rollercoaster1]

Note how to phrase your question and end it.

What sort of answer are you expecting to question 2?

Don't you think it should be either 'I just translated' or 'I now translated'?

 

[Rover_KE]

Don't you think it should be either 'I just translated' or 'I now translated'?

"Here's one sentence I just now translated into English" is acceptable.

 

[GoodTaste]

Note how to phrase your question and end it.

What sort of answer are you expecting to question 2?

(1) and (2) are exclamations rather than questions:

(1) How big is the fog in London!

(2) How foggy it is in London!

I should have used exclamation marks.

 

[Tdol]

2) works fine. However, the fogs of London are history- the last great fogs were in the 1950s.

 

[Tarheel]

I don't think of fogs as having size. However, one can be thicker or thinner than another.

 

[Skrej]

Fogs can also be heavy or light, but not big/little.

 

[Yankee]

(1) "Big"? No. (2) How foggy is it...?"

I would prefer/use, "How dense is the fog......?".

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

(1) and (2) are exclamations rather than questions:

(1) How big [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] the fog in London is!

Fog isn't big or little. It can be thick or heavy or dense (or thin or light).

Clouds have sizes, fog doesn't.

(2) How foggy it is in London!

Much better!

I should have used exclamation marks.

As you phrased it, it's a question. To make it a statement (with or without an exclamation point), put is at the end.

 

[GoodTaste]

Fogs can also be heavy or light, but not big/little.

(1) "Big"? No. (2) How foggy is it...?"

I would prefer/use, "How dense is the fog......?".

Is it probably a cultural difference? In Chinese it says "How big the fog is!" (The most commonly used Chinese phrase: 好大的雾. Bing Translator translated as It's a big fog. Google Translator would get a similar result. @tedmc)

Besides, isn't fog a kind of cloud that touches the ground? If cloud could be described as little or big, why can't fog?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Is it probably a cultural difference? In Chinese it says "How big the fog is!" (The most commonly used Chinese phrase: 好大的雾. Bing Translator translated as It's a big fog. Google Translator would get a similar result. @tedmc)

Besides, isn't fog a kind of cloud that touches the ground? If cloud could be described as little or big, why can't fog?

I don't know whether it's a cultural difference. It's certainly a language difference.

We just don't think of fog as having a size. I never have, anyway.

Yes, of course, fog is a cloud that touches the ground. But when you're in it, it doesn't look like a cloud. It looks like fog.

More importantly, when you're in fog, you have no idea how big the cloud is. You can only see a short distance, right? So size is meaningless.

 

[Tdol]

If cloud could be described as little or big, why can't fog?

Because, when it hits the ground, we're more concerned with how thick it is.