"As complaints go" - reword please
Hi there!

I came across a couple of sentences which include this phrase "As complaints go".
Here they are:

- The key to gripe is that as complaints go, it's trivial.
- For example, the city has been hearing gripes about parking rules for a generation, but as complaints go, it's just not getting a lot of traction.

So I can't fully catch the meaning of this phrase. Could you reword it and explain what it means and why it's there, please?

Thanks!

Question

"As complaints go" - reword please
Hi there!

I came across a couple of sentences which include this phrase "As complaints go". 
Here they are:

- The key to gripe is that as complaints go, it's trivial.
- For example, the city has been hearing gripes about parking rules for a generation, but as complaints go, it's just not getting a lot of traction.

So I can't fully catch the meaning of this phrase. Could you reword it and explain what it means and why it's there, please?

Thanks!

Answer

"As (blank) goes" is a phrase we use in lots of ways, it's an idiom.

As rules go, this one is pretty dumb.
I liked Spot. As dogs go, he was the best.

The phrase means something like, "Among others of the kind," and offhand I think it's always used in comparison.

So, the city got lots of complaints, but compared to other complaints, this one didn't get much attention.

Answer

The sentence basically means that no one pays attention to the complaints and the city is just going on without paying attention to it.

Answer

The sentence basically means that no one pays attention to the complaints and the city is just going on with it without paying attention to it.

Answers · 4

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