What is the meaning of 'half a cent'? I wonder why these expressions exist: 1. To go up half a cent 2. To go down several cents 3. To gain some ground What is the meaning of 'half a cent', 'several ce

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Tram Nguyen

What is the meaning of 'half a cent'? I wonder why these expressions exist: 1. To go up half a cent 2. To go down several cents 3. To gain some ground What is the meaning of 'half a cent', 'several cents' or 'some ground'? Why does the native use such expression? Thank you so much for your help.

1 mai 2019 12:16

Réponses · 8

The first two are just increases or decreases in an amount of money. The third one means to make progress. It probably came from the way wars used to be fought: a line of soldiers fights another line of soldiers. When one line moves forward, they have "gained ground." The phrase lost relevance in war, and now it just means you are doing something against an opposing force, and you have made progress.

1 mai 2019

These all concern money. To relate to the answers, you would have to think of the time when 1 dong was a significant amount of money and 100 Su were required to make 1 dong.

1 mai 2019

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