①A tidy sum 和 ②A tidy sum of 和 ③A tidy amount of 的差別在哪裡？如果不好說明，請提供一些例句。

Hi guys

tbh I have a lot of questions to ask in my head.
-Does 'A tidy sum' just deal with money, so it only means "a lot of money"?
-Can I just swap ② and ③ with 'a lot of'?
-Can they be used with other things apart from money?
if yes, could you show me some examples where it doesn't have to do with money?

You can just skip my answers above
and any kind of explanation will be welcome!

thanks

答覆

Grimbo-Jankins

2017年5月15日

最佳解答

英語 (英國)

Tidy's original meaning as an adjective is meant to describe things being clean and in their proper order.

In slang talk you might hear it used as a word to describe things or even people being good or desirable.

"Did you see her?"

"Yeah she was tidy"

From this we can see tidy can also give the impression of being pleasing to the eyes

Knowing this, we can return to "a tidy sum" and see that it gives the image of a neat pile of money, large enough to be jealous of, or proud of owning.

A tidy sum generally does refer specifically to money. Your second and third sentences have approximately the same meaning and can be swapped with no problem :)

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Grimbo-Jankins

2017年5月15日

英語 (英國)

Tidy's original meaning as an adjective is meant to describe things being clean and in their proper order.

In slang talk you might hear it used as a word to describe things or even people being good or desirable.

"Did you see her?"

"Yeah she was tidy"

From this we can see tidy can also give the impression of being pleasing to the eyes

Knowing this, we can return to "a tidy sum" and see that it gives the image of a neat pile of money, large enough to be jealous of, or proud of owning.

A tidy sum generally does refer specifically to money. Your second and third sentences have approximately the same meaning and can be swapped with no problem :)

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Togetnuance

2017年5月16日

韓語

@Grimbo-Jankins Ooo this is it!
I was also wondering how come this word 'tidy' can be used in this way from its original meaning. This is crystal clear!

Can I ask one more?
I get the feeling that 'A tidy of' goes with positive situations not negative ones. So for example, if I want to express 'too many people' having a negative connotation, wouldn't I say like "There were a tidy sum/amount of people" I think saying it like this way could be sarcastic.

Thanks!