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Randomly or at random

ROBINDESBOIS

April 06, 2010 02:25 AM

Randomly or at random

can anybody explain the difference of this adverb and prepositional phrase?
CAn you set an example to see their meaning?

María José

April 06, 2010 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBINDESBOIS (Post 78594)

can anybody explain the difference of this adverb and prepositional phrase?
CAn you set an example to see their meaning?

Randomly or at random are synonymous, but the former is more formal.The Spanish translation is al azar.
There is a syntactic difference between them though: the position they occupy in the sentence is different. Look at the examples below:
The magician chose a card at random from the deck
The books were randomly arranged on the library shelves

ROBINDESBOIS

April 06, 2010 05:19 AM

Thank you my fairy godmother

María José

April 06, 2010 06:02 AM

You are welcome. I have to confess I quite enjoy your questions.;)

pjt33

April 06, 2010 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by María José (Post 78595)

Randomly or at random are synonymous, but the former is more formal.

Cuidado. "Random" también tiene una acepción informal algo como "sorprendente": "I bumped into Fred in the market today. How random is that?!"

Asimismo, "randomly" puede significar "por casualidad", pero "at random" no.

Perikles

April 06, 2010 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjt33 (Post 78633)

Cuidado. "Random" también tiene una acepción informal algo como "sorprendente": "I bumped into Fred in the market today. How random is that?!".

That is a really unknown use for me - it must be quite modern.

María José

April 06, 2010 04:07 PM

And random can also be used as an adjective:
Our lives are not as random as we think.

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