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Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years."



 
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Expression: "The weather was very good on the second of November." | Bloodline and lineage
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Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years." Sun Nov 18, 2007 17:53 pm  Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years."
 

Hi

Do you find the following sentence correct and natural?

Quote:
He does not look a day older than 15 years.

Tom
Tom
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Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years." Sun Nov 18, 2007 18:11 pm  Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years."
 

He doesn't look a day older than 15

sounds more natural to me.

(Sorry to be so nitpicking!)
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Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years." Sun Nov 18, 2007 18:19 pm  Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years."
 

Conchita wrote:
He doesn't look a day older than 15


Yes, Conchita, I also thought of the same first, but let's suppose a student finds the following sentence in a dictionary, he won't be able to know whether 15 is days, months or years. Do you think mentioning years makes the sentence odd?

Quote:
He doesn't look a day older than 15.

Many thanks

Tom
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Joined: 30 May 2006
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Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years." Sun Nov 18, 2007 18:32 pm  Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years."
 

Hi Tom

In my opinion, your sentence would be most natural with the word 'over' (rather than 'older than'):

He doesn't look a day over 15.


No native speaker would ever think you were referring to 15 days or 15 months instead of 15 years. So, to any native speaker, the word 'years' is so utterly unnecessary that if you decide to add it, you will only succeed in making your sentence sound odd.

EDIT:
Also keep in mind that we basically never say "He is 15 years."
Instead, we say either "He is 15." -OR- "He is 15 years old."
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Expression: "The weather was very good on the second of November." | Bloodline and lineage
ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms Expression: "He does not look a day older than 15 years." All times are GMT + 2 Hours
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