Oscar
Hi everyone! How are you? How's summer going? I've come across the expression 'To stoop so low.' There is and Spanish expression which conveys exactly the same meaning and which translates word by word as 'To fall so low.' I googled it and I found out that 'To fall so low' appears even more than 'To stoop so low.' Hence, my doubt is whether these two expressions are used interchangeably or not and whether there's one more 'English' than the other. Thanks a lot folks Best!
21 août 2021 09:47
Réponses · 4
1
They two expressions can be synonymous but they are different expressions. "Stoop so low" is generally used in the negative, I believe, and is usually a response to some accusation of a slightly immoral act. For example, "I would never stoop so low as to charge my italki students for a text message between classes." The physical act of "stooping" (i.e. bending down at the knees" is not what is happening here. This is a figurative use of stooping. (By the way, stooping is something that birds do, more than humans, in my mind, anyway.) "Fall so low" can be figurative, but can also be very literal. "The water level of the reservoir fell so low that irrigation was no longer possible" for example. The (free) Merriam online dictionary spells out all these uses and more. I hope that is helpful.
21 août 2021
Hi Oscar, I've never heard 'to fall so low' used interchangeably with 'to stoop so low', and it's not a collocation I would recognise in British English, I'd always use stoop rather than fall in that phrase. Regards, Paul
21 août 2021
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