If something is hit and miss or hit-and-miss, then it is inconsistent or unreliable in terms of its quality, reliability etc.
If an author is a bit hit and miss, then some of their books are good, some of them are bad.
If trains from London to Oxford are a bit hit and miss, sometimes they are on time, sometimes they are late or cancelled.
If a technique is hit and miss, then sometimes it is effective and sometimes it doesn’t work.
‘Hit and miss’ is an example of a binomial expression, which are fixed phrases consisting of two words connected by ‘and’. Common examples are black and white, give and take, pros and cons. The word order of binomials is usually fixed – you can’t say ‘miss and hit’ or ‘white and black’. Many binomials are idiomatic, and the meaning is not easy to guess directly (e.g. ‘bits and bobs’).
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Accent: England (RP)
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, .
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Keyboard Shortcuts
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The excellent , service a bit .
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About the sentence
…the service tends to be a bit hit and miss…
to tend to do sth is a useful verb to use when you want to describe what is normally true about something, e.g. Films in the UK tend to start about 30 minutes later than you expect them to, because of all the adverts.
Accent: Ireland
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Esc — Play/Pause (rewinds 1.5s)
Ctrl/⌘ + ← — Skip back 1.5s
Ctrl/⌘ + → — Skip forward 1.5s
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Esc — Play/Pause (rewinds 1.5s)
Ctrl/⌘ + ← — Skip back 1.5s
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don’t carry research beforehand marketing campaigns to be .
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About the sentence
…If…
This sentence is an example of a first conditional, which is used to talk about real possibilities in the present or future.
Accent: North America
80%
1x
Keyboard Shortcuts
Esc — Play/Pause (rewinds 1.5s)
Ctrl/⌘ + ← — Skip back 1.5s
Ctrl/⌘ + → — Skip forward 1.5s
, .
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Keyboard Shortcuts
Esc — Play/Pause (rewinds 1.5s)
Ctrl/⌘ + ← — Skip back 1.5s
Ctrl/⌘ + → — Skip forward 1.5s
She’s of bestsellers, her books are a .
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About the sentence
…She’s written…
The present perfect (have/has done) is used here to talk about action (writing a couple of bestsellers) that happened during an unfinished period of time before now. In this case, the time period is the writer’s career or life.
The present perfect is used because it doesn’t matter and isn’t specified exactly when the action happened. If we do specify, then we use past simple. e.g. She wrote her first bestseller when she was 19.
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The author Noah Gordon write to bit and miss, he write marvelous triologic of The Doctor, I loved it but others books are no not good than The Doctor. Is same with the TV series CSI Ioved the Vegas CSI it was interesting but is not same with CSI New York it was not good than La Vegas
Hi Jose! Thanks for your example 🙂 I’ve made a few correction (compare my version to yours):
“The author Noah Gordon’s writing is a bit hit and miss. He wrote a marvellous trilogy of The Doctor. I loved it but others books are not as good. It is the same with the TV series CSI. I loved the Vegas CSI – it was interesting, but it is not the same with CSI New York which was not as good as La Vegas”
Be careful with comparisons of (in)equality, when you say that two things are the same or not the same. You need the structure: (not) as [adjective] as sth. e.g. Oxford is not as big as London.
I think that in most of the countries public transport is somewhat hit and miss. At least in my country, I quite often have to leave home to get to work around two hours earlier because transport tends to be a bit hit and miss.
I’d never seen this phrase before, it was quite funny and useful for me. Thank you !!!!
As said above, public transport tends to be a hit and miss and it’s not different in my country. But I was wondering if the example about trains in London is true. I know this is a stereotype, but I thought that in England everything would be on time
I’m afraid it is true! It depends a bit on which part of the country you are in, but in some areas there are major problems with train services at the moment.
By the way, we only need to say ‘hit and miss’, not ‘a hit and miss’. Maybe you meant to say ‘a bit hit and miss’?
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