Learn English – Within Expectations

phrase-meaningphrase-usageprepositional-phrases

I have this question about the phrase "within expectations":

  1. He returned home late, which was expected.
  2. 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:

He returned home late, as expected.

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:

Google's 3rd-quarter profits fell squarely within the Street's expectations.

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:

To me this conjures up a situation where a manager is evaluating an employee and cannot think of anything spectacularly good (or bad) that the employee did for the company.

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