I have this question about the phrase "within expectations":
- He returned home late, which was expected.
- He returned home late, which was within expectations.
Is "within expectations" used correctly in sentence 2, if sentence 2 is meant to be equal to sentence 1? Or is "within expectation" is some sort of business/financial term used frequently in articles like in Wall Street Journal?
Best Answer
Both sentences are technically correct, although #2 is too formal and verbose for as simple a situation as arriving home late. An even more natural phrasing might be:
With regards to the phrase "within expectations", your intuition of it being a business-like phrase is correct. You might see a WSJ article use it like this:
If I were writing the article, however, I might replace "expectations" with "projections", which to me sounds more natural.
@ultrasawblade's answer is spot on too: