[Idiom] Turned To The Worst?

[CaseyA]

SOS - Safe Outdoor Survival

Before we know it the weather turned to the worst and the cloud cover grew heavier and heavier.

Shouldn't it be "took a turn for the worse"?

 

[Hedwig]

I believe the phrase is turn for the worse/worst. I'm reminded of 'if worse comes to worse', which also sounds odd but seems to be in popular use.

 

[Rover_KE]

SOS - Safe Outdoor Survival



Shouldn't it be "took a turn for the worse"?

Yes, it should.

Rover

 

[Tdol]

I believe the phrase is turn for the worse/worst. I'm reminded of 'if worse comes to worse', which also sounds odd but seems to be in popular use.

I say if worst comes to worst.

 

[BobK]

.... I'm reminded of 'if worse comes to worse', which also sounds odd but seems to be in popular use.

It sounds less odd in the verrsion I have known and used: 'If the worst comes to the worst', which has of late been ditched in favour of the fancier sounding 'In the worst-case scenario' - or just 'Worst case, ...' followed by the bad thing.

b

PS 'Turned to the worst' would be possible, in a context such as 'Before we knew it, the shower had turned [in]to the worst hail-storm we'd ever experienced'. (This has lost the general idea of 'taking a turn for the worse'; 'turn' means something else here; but that string of words is just possible.)

 

[CaseyA]

Hypothetically thinking, "turn to the worst" is acceptable, so that the following could be acceptable too?

His health turned to the worst.

 

[Tdol]

Where does your hypothetical thinking come from? I would recommend re-reading Bob's post.

 

[emsr2d2]

In your original quote, it should read "Before we knew it..."

 

[BobK]

:up: I silently tweaked that in my rewritten version. (In some sorts of popular psychological stuff, 'Before we know it' is quite common though: 'We agree to this, and agree to do that, and trawl through our Inbox... and before we know it, it's past lunchtime.'

b

 

[emsr2d2]

:up: I silently tweaked that in my rewritten version. (In some sorts of popular psychological stuff, 'Before we know it' is quite common though: 'We agree to this, and agree to do that, and trawl through our Inbox... and before we know it, it's past lunchtime.'

b

So you did. I missed that. Yes, "Before you know it..." etc is something I say a lot and if the rest of the original sentence had been written in the present tense, I'd have left it.

Before you know it, the weather takes a turn for the worse and the clouds are heavier and heavier.

If it had been written in the past perfect, I'd have left it too.

Before you know it, the weather's taken a turn for the worse and the clouds have got heavier and heavier.

But I don't think "Before you know it..." works with "the weather took" and "the clouds got".

 

[BobK]

I've thought of an easier and shorter answer

In 'take a turn for the worse', turn is a noun. In, say 'turned cloudy', it's a verb. If anything 'turns to <something>' the <something> has to be a noun {examples 'dreams turn to ashes', 'King Midas turns to gold',...and - in a different use of 'turn to' - 'the students turn to page 21'.

b