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Is "ad infinitum" common expression as native English speaker is talking?
"Anyway,we've obviously gone over this ad infinitum"
1. Can I use forever instead of ad infinium?
2. Is "ad infinitum" common expression as native English speaker is talking?
Thanks for helping in advance.
Dec 14, 2018 2:52 AM
Answers · 4
3
If you want to use "forever," you can change the tense to present perfect progressive/continuous.
"We've been going over this forever."
Lawyers, college professors, and over-educated nerds like me might use "ad infinitum" in casual speech (strangely enough, I used it while talking with my parents yesterday). Most people wouldn't. I would guess that about half of Americans would not know the meaning of "ad infinitum."
December 14, 2018
2
You can't use "forever" as a synonym for ad infinitum here.
You can say " we've gone over this a hundred/thousand/million times."
You can say "we've gone over and over and over this."
An educated speaker of English would understand and or use "ad infinitum" but "We've gone over this a hundred times" is more common.
December 14, 2018
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Bean
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English
Learning Language
English
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