Hi all, who could explain to me why " nearly" , which is " adverb" , is able to modify NOUN . I can’t understand such this collocation . Besides, in oxford dictionary , similarly , for example : "NEARLY TIME "
. And so whether I can write " IT IS THE SAME NEARLY " ?
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It doesn’t modify the noun “time” but the entire phrase “time to leave”.
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whether or not I can write " IT IS THE SAME NEARLY " ?
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No, the correct word order is “nearly the same”. By the way, where did you learn the term ‘true collocation’? You probably mean ‘strong collocation’?
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I would say: ‘It’s almost time we left.’
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‘It’s almost time we left.’
I’m sure people have said this, but it seems to be a mixture of future and past.
“It’s time we left.” Implies that we should have left already. It could be a sort of acknowledgment to your hosts that you’ve stayed too long.
So, to me, your statement is that it’s almost to the point in time when we should have already left.
“It’s nearly time to leave.” seems fine to me.
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This reminds me of the following discussion.
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