# forward / far forward



## toicy

這兩個詞好像有不同意思.
但我查字典都查不到.
想得到詳細解答
事情是這樣的:
"Swimming learners should extend their hands and arms far forward as possible"
and raise their shoulders towards their ears at the beginning of a stroke
in order to generate the greatest forward force
在做proof reading exercise時, 我把 far改成as, 但答案是加as 在far前.
我找過相關資料, 但看不明白其分別, 可不可用例子詳加解釋? far是不是配搭其它詞又有不同解釋?
謝謝


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## MèngDié

I'm not sure how to explain this from a grammatical standpoint, but I can confirm that the answer key is correct. Far + adj./adv. is a common structure, where far is used to emphasize the degree. _As far forward as possible, _尽量往前伸。 Other examples that I can think of (在这些句子里，as或far都是不能省掉的): 

Swim as far out as possible, otherwise you risk getting hit by the boat. 
As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to visit Hong Kong. 
The epidemic has spread across the hemisphere, as far north as Alaska and as far south as Pantagonia. 
I'm getting myself as far removed from this mess as possible.


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## toicy

Thank you for your great examples.
But I am wondering about the difference of "as X as possible"   and   "as far X as possible", like the examples you gave.
"Swim as out as possible, otherwise you risk getting hit by the boat."
"Swim as far out as possible, otherwise you risk getting hit by the boat."


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## MèngDié

toicy said:


> "Swim as out as possible, otherwise you risk getting hit by the boat."




Maybe it's best to post your quetion in the English forum? In my experience, people just don't say "as out as possible", _out_ has to go with something else when used in this structure, e.g., as far out as possible, as out of it as possible (He's drunk so much - he's as out of it as you can possibly imagine). I'm sure there's a grammatical explanation, but I just have my 语感 to rely upon.


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## xiaolijie

MèngDié said:


> toicy said:
> 
> 
> 
> "Swim as out as possible, otherwise you risk getting hit by the boat."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe it's best to post your quetion in the English forum? In my experience, people just don't say "as out as possible", _out_  has to go with something else when used in this structure, e.g., as far  out as possible, as out of it as possible (He's drunk so much - he's as  out of it as you can possibly imagine). I'm sure there's a grammatical  explanation, but I just have my 语感 to rely upon.
Click to expand...

From the title of the thread, I think toicy has made a typo in the sentence. This may be what is intended:
*"Swim as far as possible, otherwise you risk getting hit by the boat."*


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## SuperXW

我想，问题在于far, out, forward这类单词的用法区别。
far 仅仅表示“远”，最常用作形容词。 as far as possible = 尽可能远，越远越好。
out 和 forward 经常用作副词，来修饰动词。
out 基本意思是“出，外”。 as out as possible = 尽可能出？尽可能外？ 这种中文听起来也成问题。
forward 基本意思是“前”。 as forward as possible = 尽可能前？


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## SuperXW

But I do wonder, 
"Swimming learners should extend their hands and arms *as forward as possible*."
Is this ok?


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## MèngDié

SuperXW said:


> "Swimming learners should extend their hands and arms *as forward as possible*."



I personally would not say it like that. It seems to me that when _forward_ is used as an adverb indicating the direction of a movement, it is not used on its own in the _as...as possible_ structure, and this would appear to apply to similar words such as _backward, upward, downward_ etc.

_forward _can of course be used in this structure on its own under other circumstances, for example:

I was told that you need to be as forward as possible in order to win an American girl's heart. I wonder if it's true? (here _forward_ is an adjective). 

My 2 cents...


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## toicy

Re: xiaojie. Thank you for your reply. In fact I did not make any typo. I really cannot distinguish between "as far forward as possible" and " as forward as possible". 

Re: SuperXW at #7. I am also wondering if they have different meaning.

Re: MengDie. Can I conclude that in the structure " as X as possible", where X CANNOT be an adverb, so we CAN add a "far" ahead "X" to FORM an adjective(far-forward = adjective, forward = adverb)?


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## MèngDié

toicy said:


> Re: MengDie. Can I conclude that in the structure " as X as possible", where X CANNOT be an adverb, so we CAN add a "far" ahead "X" to FORM an adjective(far-forward = adjective, forward = adverb)?



I don't think that's a hard and fast rule. In the _as...as possible_ structure, one can definitely use adverbs. For example, _run as fast as possible_, _speak as loudly as possible_, etc. Just by adding _far_ in front of _forward_ doesn't automatically make the latter an adjective either.

My sense is that when you add _far_ to _forward,_ the emphasis of the phrase moves to _as far...as possible, _which is a commonly-used construction, and _forward _becomes a sort of secondary element (to indicate the direction) to the grammatical structure (and thus softening the jarring effect had it been used on its own in the phrase). 

Perhaps it's best to stop analyzing it. In conclusion, one does not say "extend your arms as forward as possible", but "as far forward as possible" is perfectly acceptable.


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## toicy

I am not sure if i have understood. Anyway Thank you so much.


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## MèngDié

toicy said:


> I am not sure if i have understood.



哈哈，可能我的解释也是牵强附会吧。如果一定要弄个水落石出的话，建议你还是到英语论坛去试一试运气吧。不过像as far forward as possible这种句子，也不是日常生活中每天都要用的，没有百分之百搞清楚也没关系。 有些东西多读一些，慢慢就有这个语感了。


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