Expression: splitting hairs

[mike]

English Idioms and Expressions, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #12 "Splitting Hairs", question 6

Quite frankly you're splitting hairs. Does it matter whether it's the past simple or the perfect tense?

(a) arguing about small points
(b) arguing about tenses
(c) aruing about grammar
(d) arguing about grammatical points

English Idioms and Expressions, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #12 "Splitting Hairs", answer 6

Quite frankly you're arguing about small points. Does it matter whether it's the past simple or the perfect tense?

Correct answer: (a) arguing about small points
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what is the meaning of the splitting hair?

[Meliha]

Splitting hairs means going too much into detail, especially (if not only) in an argument.