Luiz
''Least'' (used with singular or plural words?) ''However, by analysing our data in a descriptive manner, we observed least correlations between these constructs and the variables of interest...'' Is this sentence well written? * I wonder whether I can replace the word ''minimun'' with ''least''? Can the word ''least'' be used with plural words (like ''correlations'', in the example above)? Or can it just be used with singular ones? Thank you very much.
Nov 11, 2018 11:29 PM
Answers · 6
1
You can't really swap least and minimum. Because least does not have a minimum level below which the compared or the comparator can not go. Minimum would be used to indicate the lowest price for example. Least would be used to indicate a result as in your apparent example. However there is not the full complete ending to the context to give a full answer to your question. Least would be comparing plurals the (the thing/item that is the least would be a singular) unless specified "the least I would be able to sell supply is 100 grams" . 100 grams is plural, but "the least" might be considered as a single amount.
November 11, 2018
Olá, Luiz. I think you may mean “minimal” — are you translating from Portuguese? “Least” does not work at all in that sentence.
November 12, 2018
Hi Gary, here is the original sentence: ''However, by analysing our data in a descriptive manner, we managed to observe least correlations of anxiety (r = 0.217) and stress (r = 0.148) symptoms with the variable ‘’Time since diagnosis’’. Do you think I wrote it correctly?
November 12, 2018
correlation, correlation coefficient or relationship may be positive , negative or zero; also you may use minimum instead of least.
November 11, 2018
I would also prefer to see the end of the sentence (if there is something else indicated by the ellipsis)
November 11, 2018
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