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Aug 2023
1:11pm, 10 Aug 2023
4,450 posts
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JCB
I did look it up to verify. Although it’s in the dictionary I get a rap across my knuckles as I could have just used seldom. “Even more seldom” just sounded funny.
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Aug 2023
1:23pm, 10 Aug 2023
19,392 posts
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Cerrertonia
I avoid using 'seldom' because non-native speakers are a large part of my readership and they are more likely to be familiar with 'rarely' or 'occasionally' or 'less often' than 'seldom'.
As Rich says, seldom is an adverb already.
I don't think modern style guides recommend the use of "This is I" or "It is I" vs "This is me". If you think 'is' is just a regular verb, then the subject pronoun (me) is correct. If you think English 'is' (or the verb 'to be' more generally) doesn't behave like a regular verb in the situation where it's being used to equate something rather than express an action, then 'I' is correct. The fact that other European languages have this kind of predicate nominative rule doesn't mean that English does. It's a style question, not one of correctness.
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Aug 2023
9:04pm, 10 Aug 2023
9,744 posts
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Northern Exile
Yes. I like a man who knows how to handle "to be".
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Aug 2023
9:57pm, 10 Aug 2023
22,144 posts
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RichHL
Or not to be. That's the question, after all.
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Aug 2023
10:18pm, 10 Aug 2023
9,745 posts
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Northern Exile
Indeed 
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Aug 2023
12:04pm, 21 Aug 2023
22,621 posts
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DeeGee
I avoid using 'seldom' because non-native speakers are a large part of my readership and they are more likely to be familiar with 'rarely' or 'occasionally' or 'less often' than 'seldom'.
I don't know your audience, cerrer, but I avoid using seldom more for native-speakers than non-native ones, as it's becoming a little archaic.
It's an anglo-saxon rooted word, "selten" in German and "zelden" in Dutch.
For ease of reading by non-native speakers, I'd opt for "less often" or "not often" over "occasionally", for "occasion" is a false cognate with French.
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Aug 2023
12:57pm, 21 Aug 2023
19,503 posts
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Cerrertonia
I don't know your audience, cerrer, but I avoid using seldom more for native-speakers than non-native ones, as it's becoming a little archaic. It's an anglo-saxon rooted word, "selten" in German and "zelden" in Dutch. For ease of reading by non-native speakers, I'd opt for "less often" or "not often" over "occasionally", for "occasion" is a false cognate with French.
My readers are most likely to be Indian or Chinese, so something that is a false friend in French is unlikely to be a problem Always instructive to put your text through Google translate and see what comes back...
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Aug 2023
1:35pm, 22 Aug 2023
31,635 posts
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macca 53
Anyone watching the World Athletic Championships confused by the qualifying information?
“First four in heats plus four runner-ups”. Shouldn’t they be runners-up? (i reckon it’s probably an old chestnut in here!)
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Aug 2023
11:36pm, 22 Aug 2023
63,491 posts
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LindsD
Yes
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Sep 2023
9:15am, 8 Sep 2023
9,990 posts
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GordonG
Advice, please.
I'm reviewing a friend's novel. One part is set in a bar and my friend is trying to convey that there are more men in the bar than women. She's written:
"More men in suits eying up the woman, who were less in quantity".
Other than the fact I don't like the actual line, should it be 'fewer'?
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