8 alternatives to “approximately”
If we want to say that a number, quantity, time or price is ‘quite accurate but not exact’, we have several options in English.
The most formal way of expressing ‘not exactly’ is approximately; the most common in spoken English is about.
Here’s a list of eight words and phrases that we can use, with example sentences:
- A coffee costs about $3.
- How much will it cost, more or less?
- He earns somewhere in the region of 30K.
- Inflation is roughly 3%.
- She’s fifty or thereabouts.
- I’ll be there round about three o’clock.
- It’s not far – 20km or so.
- Today’s flight will take approximately two hours.
Benazir - February 19, 2013, 1:25 pm
Thanks alot for sending me many things for solving my questions and now I need the conditional types123 . Thanks
Stuart Cook - February 19, 2013, 7:07 pm
You can see the rules for conditionals here, Benazir:
Rules for using conditional sentences
Rey Hudson - April 26, 2016, 2:18 pm
Hi, Stuart,
While I was writing your “approximations” on the board, I flashed on two more: As “in the region of” we also sometimes say “the neighborhood of”. Also, being (at least phonetically and grammatically) native American (No, not THAT kind!)… but long since removed, I often hear and see simply “Well, BALLPARK, 30,000 dollars
Vera Canazio - March 22, 2018, 11:36 am
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