“Starve to death” Vs. “Starve to the point of death”
About a year ago, I had an on-line friend, a native speaker, chatting with me. When I sent a message to him saying:
I'm starving to the point of death.
He rephrased that as:
I'm starving to death.
But now that I think about it, and googled it, my expression wasn't wrong and they use it a lot. So I was wondering why he had to correct the sentence. Is it not a colloquial language? Or does it have slightly differences in meaning?
meaning
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
add a comment |
About a year ago, I had an on-line friend, a native speaker, chatting with me. When I sent a message to him saying:
I'm starving to the point of death.
He rephrased that as:
I'm starving to death.
But now that I think about it, and googled it, my expression wasn't wrong and they use it a lot. So I was wondering why he had to correct the sentence. Is it not a colloquial language? Or does it have slightly differences in meaning?
meaning
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
add a comment |
About a year ago, I had an on-line friend, a native speaker, chatting with me. When I sent a message to him saying:
I'm starving to the point of death.
He rephrased that as:
I'm starving to death.
But now that I think about it, and googled it, my expression wasn't wrong and they use it a lot. So I was wondering why he had to correct the sentence. Is it not a colloquial language? Or does it have slightly differences in meaning?
meaning
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
About a year ago, I had an on-line friend, a native speaker, chatting with me. When I sent a message to him saying:
I'm starving to the point of death.
He rephrased that as:
I'm starving to death.
But now that I think about it, and googled it, my expression wasn't wrong and they use it a lot. So I was wondering why he had to correct the sentence. Is it not a colloquial language? Or does it have slightly differences in meaning?
meaning
meaning
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
edited 1 hour ago
Lucian Sava
9,038113073
9,038113073
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
asked 1 hour ago
dolcodolco
55228
55228
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
If someone starves to death, they are dead.
If someone starves to the point of death, they are on the cusp of dying due to starvation, but have not yet done so. If they do not get food immediately, they will die. Your friend was using it as hyperbole, or dramatic overstatement.
Of course, if someone really were starving to the point of death, they would be unconscious and couldn't eat, and would need intravenous nutrition.
This is not to be confused with at the point of death, which means "at the moment that death occurred". It is particularly used for legal stuff related to what happens after someone dies, but is used in other contexts as well.
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "481"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fell.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f198128%2fstarve-to-death-vs-starve-to-the-point-of-death%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
If someone starves to death, they are dead.
If someone starves to the point of death, they are on the cusp of dying due to starvation, but have not yet done so. If they do not get food immediately, they will die. Your friend was using it as hyperbole, or dramatic overstatement.
Of course, if someone really were starving to the point of death, they would be unconscious and couldn't eat, and would need intravenous nutrition.
This is not to be confused with at the point of death, which means "at the moment that death occurred". It is particularly used for legal stuff related to what happens after someone dies, but is used in other contexts as well.
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
add a comment |
If someone starves to death, they are dead.
If someone starves to the point of death, they are on the cusp of dying due to starvation, but have not yet done so. If they do not get food immediately, they will die. Your friend was using it as hyperbole, or dramatic overstatement.
Of course, if someone really were starving to the point of death, they would be unconscious and couldn't eat, and would need intravenous nutrition.
This is not to be confused with at the point of death, which means "at the moment that death occurred". It is particularly used for legal stuff related to what happens after someone dies, but is used in other contexts as well.
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
add a comment |
If someone starves to death, they are dead.
If someone starves to the point of death, they are on the cusp of dying due to starvation, but have not yet done so. If they do not get food immediately, they will die. Your friend was using it as hyperbole, or dramatic overstatement.
Of course, if someone really were starving to the point of death, they would be unconscious and couldn't eat, and would need intravenous nutrition.
This is not to be confused with at the point of death, which means "at the moment that death occurred". It is particularly used for legal stuff related to what happens after someone dies, but is used in other contexts as well.
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
If someone starves to death, they are dead.
If someone starves to the point of death, they are on the cusp of dying due to starvation, but have not yet done so. If they do not get food immediately, they will die. Your friend was using it as hyperbole, or dramatic overstatement.
Of course, if someone really were starving to the point of death, they would be unconscious and couldn't eat, and would need intravenous nutrition.
This is not to be confused with at the point of death, which means "at the moment that death occurred". It is particularly used for legal stuff related to what happens after someone dies, but is used in other contexts as well.
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
answered 1 hour ago
SamBCSamBC
6,329528
6,329528
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
add a comment |
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
I might add that while I'm starving or I'm starving to death is extremely common hyperbole in casual conversation, I'm starving to the point of death is unusual and somewhat unnatural even though it is perfectly grammatical and would have essentially the same meaning.
– choster
35 mins ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language Learners Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fell.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f198128%2fstarve-to-death-vs-starve-to-the-point-of-death%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
