To be objective/fair? (1)

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To be objective/fair?
Message de chienthang posté le 30-10-2007 à 04:57:28 (S | E | F | I)
Hi everyone,
Can I say this to express my opinion about someone:
"To be objective/fair, Ann is better at speaking English than Andy".
or : "Objectively/fair speaking, Ann is better at speaking English than Andy".
Do the two adjectives have the same meaning in this case?
Thank you very much
Chienthang

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Modifié par bridg le 30-10-2007 06:13
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Réponse: To be objective/fair? de TravisKidd, postée le 31-10-2007 à 07:29:19 (S | E)
Yes, essentially. (But we wouldn't say "fair speaking" or even "fairly speaking".)

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Réponse: To be objective/fair? de chienthang, postée le 31-10-2007 à 12:03:28 (S | E)
Hi Traviskidd

Thank you very much. But I thought "fairly" doesn't exist. Is it right?

Chienthang

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Réponse: To be objective/fair? de hpesoj, postée le 31-10-2007 à 13:43:05 (S | E)
Hi,

'Fairly' does exist, it's the adverb equivilent of 'fair' (you said adjective, but 'fairly' and 'objectively' are both adverbs, to go with the verb 'speaking'). Just look it up on dictionary.com.

'To be fair' is the phrase you should always use when reasoning objectively. 'Objectively' sounds very formal and should probably not be used in such informal circumstances. As TravisKidd said, 'fairly' sounds odd here, probably because fairly can also mean 'quite'. In any case 'to be fair' is the phrase you should use .

Joe

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Modifié par hpesoj le 31-10-2007 13:43

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Réponse: To be objective/fair? de chienthang, postée le 31-10-2007 à 14:20:04 (S | E)
Thank you for your explanation, hpesoj. I have understood.

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