to a portion of size / size to a portion
English translation: to a fraction of the size
| 04:26 May 19, 2016 |
| English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO] Engineering (general) | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Tony M France Local time: 04:07 | ||||||
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| 2 +7 | to a fraction of the size |
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Answers
42 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +7
peer agreement (net): +7to a fraction of the size Explanation: I have to admit this expression is not familiar to me in EN — I initially wondered if the writer is a non-native speaker of EN, but I'm inclined to think it is just I who happen not to have heard this expression used before. However, I'd say the intended meaning is pretty clear: by using fixed firefighting methods, the size of the fire can be kept smaller than if it were just alllowed to burn freely. It may not necessarily be extinguished completely, but it will be smaller. The key expression here is 'portion of size' — personally, I wouldn't think of using 'portion' here, which usually connotes some idea of a 'share' — like a portion of cake! I would tend to say naturally 'to a fraction of the size'; though this tends to convey the idea of 'a small fraction of the size', whereas perhaps the writer here perhaps simply means literally 'some fraction of'; 'something less than a whole'. "The surviving ruins are only a fraction of the ancient city" tends to emphasize the smallness of that fraction. |
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