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'Almost'
A question from Jamal in UAE:
My question is: The uses of 'almost'.

Gareth Rees answers:

Dear Jamal

Thank you for asking about the uses of ‘almost’, which is an adverb that means ‘nearly’, not
completely’ or ‘not quite’.

As it is an adverb, we use it to modify a verb, and we usually place it before the verb. For
example, ‘I almost finished the exam, but in the end I ran out of time’. However, if the verb is
‘to be’, you put ‘almost’ after it. For example, ‘It is almost 9 o’clock’.

Secondly, we use ‘almost’ with adjectives, such as ‘I am almost ready to leave’. ‘He is almost
certain to be late.’

We also use almost with words like every, all, nothing, and no-one. This is an area that often
confuses students of English so pay attention to these examples.

Almost everyone uses the Internet these days.

I buy a newspaper almost every day.
Almost all of the students passed the exam.
I was disappointed because almost no-one came to my art exhibition.
There’s almost nothing in the fridge so I’d better go shopping.

In addition, we use almost with time expressions, like my earlier example ‘it is almost 9 o’
clock’, and with periods of times and quantities of things. For example, ‘I spent almost three
months in New York’, ‘The house I want to buy costs almost two hundred thousand pounds’.

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While on the subject of time, I should also mention that you can use ‘almost’ with the words
‘always’ and ‘never’, but not with ones like ‘sometimes’, ‘often’ and ‘occasionally’.

I almost always go to work by bus.

I almost never go to the theatre.

Well, I’ve almost finished telling you about the uses of ‘almost’, but there is one more
interesting point to make. We use ‘almost’ with like to say that two things are very similar.

My pet dog is almost like a member of the family.

Writing to bbclearningenglish.com is almost like having a personal teacher.

___________________________________________________________________________

Gareth Rees has a BA (hons) in History and Philosophy of Science, CTEFLA, and DELTA.
He has taught EFL, EAP and Business English in China, Spain and England, and he is the co-
author of the Language Leader Elementary and Pre-Intermediate English language course
books (Pearson Longman). He currently teaches English in the Language Centre at the
University of the Arts, London.

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