'To put it briefly' vs 'To put it brief'

[Tom]

Hello everybody

Which one is correct?

1- To put it briefly, I can't help you.
2- To put it brief, I can't help you.

1- He is getting pimpled on the face.
2- He is getting pimpled in the face

Thanks in advance

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

1- To put it briefly, I can't help you. would be correct.
This would also be a perfect place to use "In a nutshell".

I don't like either one of your second set of sentences very much, but if I had to choose one of them, I'd choose the first.

What I'd rather say is something like: "His face is getting pimply." -- or -- "He's getting pimples on his face."

Amy
_________________
Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[spencer]

Hi Amy,
We have the same as "in a nutshell" in Hungarian.
It's kinda shocking when you try to get the meaning of a word, you take it apart, put the both halfwords in your language, put them together, and realise that you use the exact word in the same situations, in the same way.
Strange a bit.
Spencer