2023-11-25 08:02:36
“In terms of effectiveness, your method leaves room for criticism”, “in terms of nastiness, it beats all records”, “our marketing plan is a success in terms of impact”. All these ordinary sentences are… faulty. But why ? Because we got confused with the English “in terms of”. What should have been said is “in matters of”.
What does “in terms of” mean?
“In terms of” means “according to the vocabulary specific to (a discipline)”:
In military terms, waving the white flag means stopping the fight. Alliteration is a figure of speech in poetry. In legal terms, this paragraph means you have two weeks to appeal.
What does “in matters of” mean?
Very often, “in terms” is used instead of “in matter of”, that is to say “concerning”. For example, we would say:
In terms of results, this strategy was a disaster. The government has made good progress in the fight against terrorism. We have carefully assessed the company’s needs in terms of stock renewal.
How to stop making mistakes?
Whenever you are tempted to say “in terms of”, ask yourself if it really is “terms”, in the sense of a technical term, or if it is possible to say “in terms of of “. In this case, “in matters of” is required.
#terms #mistake