"as much as"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"About as much" would be OK.  "Almost" sounds like a (dare I say it?) slip.

FWIW.

JL

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 4:46 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      "as much as"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The rotating news snippets that show on the Yahoo home page include this:
>
> "Surprisingly, the Apple iPhone retails for almost as much as it costs to
> make."
>
> Doesn't it mean to say "almost as LITTLE"?  Or perhaps "as much" is
> construed to mean 'the same amount' in either direction?
>
> --Charlie
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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