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I think, maybe is better solution that we write " a simple man or ordinary man".
A 'simple' man nowadays may imply that he has a disability, hence why 'Simple Simon Says' is now just 'Simon Says'.
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- 1774
Why? What's wrong with common man? Is a very common phrase. Google "fanfare for the common man", meravigliosa.
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- 1862
"A common man" does not have the same sense as "the common man".
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Quite right. The only reason "A common man" would be more appropriate is if the man cloned himself and is now all over the place.
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I was marked wrong for "ordinary" on the dog question. It had to be a "common dog." ??
In English we would say "he is common" meaning he has bad manners 'maleducato'. We would not say "he is a common man"
In Australia "the common man" is the average person. But we pretend to be classless so there aren't any other than common people
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What is this actually supposed to MEAN? By "common" does it mean "average" or does it mean "crass" "base" or uneducated? Hoping for someone fluent in both English & Italian to answer this. Grazie!
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Think of it like "average Joe" which doesn't usually have a pejorative meaning.
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In Spanish, we say "comùn" to mean "ordinary", but there's not a bad connotation associated with the term. So I guess Italian is the same.
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Lui è un uomo comune, ma lei è una donna speziale ... why is duolinggo according denigrating sentences for men but flattering sentences for women? This is sexist! Lol
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Yes but in England if you say someone is common it is offensive. I believe it comes from the way that high society would refer to most people (the common people).
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Common has a extra sense, not shared by the others, of joint ownership.
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It's because in Brazil we use those three as synonymous, and since Italian looks really alike Portuguese it got me thinking...
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I think most words we think of as synonyms in English are not exactly the same. If you're a native speaker, you'll probably just use them instinctively. The difference may be very subtle, and difficult to explain, but "feel" right or wrong. For example, you'd never normally say that somebody was "usual". That word would be more for habits and routines than just to describe what somebody is like. "Normal", "ordinary", (and probably "regular" in US English) are so similar, but you could use them to describe the person in a way you couldn't with "usual", but even they aren't the same as each other. If you said someone was normal, it would be neutral, but if you said they were ordinary, it could have the meaning that they were nothing special. The differences between the words are like different spices. Common and simple are further away in meaning from those other ones. Simple could mean uncomplicated or it could mean that you are not mentally quick. Common would be more normal with animals and things than people as the opposite of rare. For a person, it sounds like you are looking down on them and thinking that they behave like a pig :-)
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Because regular isn't always common. think of all of those crazy 60's and 70's fads! those were common, but they certainly not regular!
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When was the last time anyone said that I wonder! But the Americans do say 'he's a regular guy' referring to his having common habits and abilities and not his bowels, of course.
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Why do other languages always have the adjective after the direct object? I'm curious to know.
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Not all languages, and not all the time. But it is common in the Romance languages for the syntax to be mostly noun-adjective (for all noun phrases, not uniquely in the direct object).
There really is no "why". Different languages develop differently and have different rules. Italian speakers and Spanish speakers are working to get used to the English way of saying adjective-noun.
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The only context I know of in which the phrase 'common man' appears is the marvellous '1066 and all that', where it is used entirely ironically.
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- 1862
You should listen to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.
