This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 534.
Should you say almost most or almost all.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How you doing?
I'm doing well, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good.
What is on tap for today's episode?
Well, I'm curious.
Do almost all of your friends in Denver come from Colorado or are most of them transplants?
I'd say a few of them are from here, but many, many or most, honestly, most of them are transplants.
Denver's a place where a lot of people kind of pass through for a handful of years and want to live, and then maybe they move back to their hometowns or that sort of thing.
So yeah.
Transplants.
Transplants.
But is that, would you say like the, like, are there a lot of people who are from Denver?
And then when you say, move home like they are from maybe the suburbs of you know, right outside or
Yeah.
I kind of meant that broadly from Colorado sort of.
Uh, okay.
From Colorado.
Okay.
So, but a lot of people are from Colorado, like originally.
No, actually I would say like when I say trans, but I mean like move from another country.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Most people are from, a lot of people I know are from the East coast or the West coast.
It's more rare to meet someone from Colorado, whether it's Denver or another town.
Interesting.
Yeah, so today we are going to talk about something we've heard from students that is really important to clarify.
Now, Lindsay, you brought this to our attention, I believe.
Yes.
Do you want to share what it is?
Yeah, because I hear this mistake a lot, and I want us to stop making this mistake for sure.
The difference between almost, almost all and most.
I've heard a lot of our students, our listeners, making this mistake and interchanging them incorrectly.
Right.
So I've heard someone say almost people, which doesn't make any sense.
I think they mean to say most people or they might mean to say all people.
I'm not sure which, but it doesn't make sense to say almost people, right?
Right.
So we're going to clarify this today.
I'm super excited to get to the bottom of this.
Yes.
Let's dig in.
Okay.
So let's start with most.
Most means the majority.
So yeah, I would say more than half.
And here we're focusing on how many or how much.
Yeah.
So most of my friends, live within 15 minutes of my house.
Nice.
Exactly.
Or most of the time we start the meeting by going over the numbers from the past week.
Or most of our employees have master's degrees.
Or most numbers have been checked.
Okay.
Yeah.
So you see, we can use like most of, but then also just most And then the noun, right?
So most people I know in Denver are transplants, right?
So most essentially, what does it mean, Michelle, if you had to say it in a different word?
Right.
It's the majority of.
Yeah.
The majority of something, right?
Yeah.
But it doesn't mean the same thing as almost.
Actually, it's a very different meaning, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is interesting.
So let's go over now to almost.
So almost is actually an adverb.
So this is talking about how close something is.
So this one means nearly, not quite all.
Right. it's not going to be followed.
This is the key directly by a noun.
So you would not hear almost people.
Nope.
Right.
That's that phrase that we're, we're wanting to stay away from, right?
That's very wrong.
Yeah, exactly.
In adverbs.
So it's something is nearly, but not quite completely.
So for example, I've almost finished the project. right?
Or it took me almost two days, but I finally got her to answer the phone.
So it took me nearly two days.
Right.
Or in terms of number, numbers of things.
So there are almost 20 people who still come to work every day in our office.
There are nearly 20 people.
Okay.
So again, You want to say there are almost people, right?
But you could use it with numbers, right?
So almost two days, almost 20 people, right?
We're saying nearly that.
Not quite, right?
So maybe there's 18 people, right?
There's almost 20 people.
Love it.
So important.
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All right.
So now we go to.
We don't want to make this any more confusing, but I think we're clearing it up for our listeners.
We go to almost all or just all.
Let's just start with all, Michelle.
OK, so all means 100 percent.
Yes.
Right.
Yes.
Most we said it's more than 50%.
Probably maybe even to me sounds like more than 75%.
It sounds like a lot, right?
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
The majority, right?
The majority, as we said before.
Now, almost all is... If you combine them.
You're kind of combining them.
It's strange.
Just about 100%, but not quite there.
Like you might be at like 98%.
Right.
99%.
Yeah.
So when you say almost all, right, it must be followed by either a noun or a determiner in a noun.
So like almost cannot have a noun right after, but almost all can.
Okay.
So, for example, right what that would look like almost all of our staff members are coming to the party.
Or almost all employees have filled out the forms.
Almost all of the people we've hired in the past year have turned out to be great for our team.
Okay.
Right.
Yes.
So here again we can, if you're not going to say almost and then the noun.
But you could say almost all and then the noun.
Love it.
Let's break it down, Michelle, between the three.
Shall we review?
Yeah.
So just to review one more time most more than 50 percent, almost is nearly or not all.
Yeah, um advert, and it cannot yes, it cannot, be followed by a noun.
Okay, so no, almost people.
Yes, stay away from that.
Yes, but if you want to use almost people, you gotta stick the word word all in there.
It's just a small little three-letter word.
We can stick it in there.
Yes right yes, so almost all.
And that means just about a hundred percent, not quite, but just about.
Yes, i love it, and that one can be followed by a noun or a determiner and a noun.
So michelle, should we put this into real life role, a real life context here?
Shall we do it?
Let's do it.
So here we are, teammates And we are going over tasks that need to be completed before vacation.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Here we go.
Okay.
So did we finish the campaign?
Most of it.
I still need probably another hour, but I'll be done soon.
Great.
I've almost finished updating the design as well.
Perfect.
That software is tough, though.
It took me almost two hours.
Yikes.
Yeah, almost all of the work I did actually got erased.
Some problem with the system.
So I had to start all over again.
Oh, that's too bad.
All right, good.
That's not good.
Yeah.
Nice.
So let's break it down here.
So we started by saying, I asked you, you asked me, did you finish the campaign?
And you said most of it.
So again, when you're saying most of it, you're saying majority of it more than 50 or even higher than that right.
75%.
And just to clarify also like here we're using most of, but you could also say like you know most and then use a noun right.
Like most people, most places, most friends, most employees here, right?
So you could do that.
Yep, exactly.
And then you said, great.
I've almost finished updating the design as well.
So nearly finished.
Nearly, right?
And that's that adverb.
And then we wanted to do one more with almost to show you with a number.
Right.
It took me almost two hours.
So, right.
We have the noun, but we have a number in between it.
So it's OK.
Love that.
And then you said, yeah, almost all of the work I did actually got erased.
Yeah.
So now here's where we go higher in the percentage of the completion.
Right.
Like, let's say 98 percent of your work.
That's no good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good.
Okay.
So hopefully this starts to clear up the differences so we won't hear as many mistakes now.
Yes.
Guys, if there's any confusion after this episode or if we didn't clarify something, send in a question to support at allearsenglishcom.
Yes.
We'll do another episode.
Maybe we'll do it over on the All Ears English podcast next time.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yes.
Yes.
Absolutely.
So guys, did you say the episode already?
No, I didn't say that yet.
No, no, I didn't think so.
Okay.
Check out episode 518 of the Business English podcast.
That was kick your business English into high gear.
Any final takeaway today, Michelle?
You know, don't let these intimidate you.
I would say, just if you take one thing from today, do not use almost, and then have a noun right there.
Right.
So I would say, if you're going to take anything, and remember, you know, one key takeaway, that's the one.
Love that.
Love that.
So important.
And that will clean up the English really nicely and get us really clear, moving forward, to make the choice between most, almost and almost all.
All right.
Good stuff.
All right, Michelle, we'll talk to you very soon.
You have a good rest of your day.
All right.
You too.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
Thank you for listening to Business English a podcast, just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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