“On a scale of one to five, I'd give it a four.”
You went to watch a movie last weekend. You're talking about it with a friend, who asks what you thought of the movie. You liked it quite a bit, so you rate it this way.
On a scale of one to five, I'd give it a four.
Want Video and Sound? Follow us on YouTube
(rate something) on a scale of (a number / a number to a number)
When people give something a number rating, they usually have an idea of what the top possible rating is. For example, you might rate something a "6" with the idea that the top possible rating is "10". That top value defines the "scale" of the rating. So you can say:
I'd rate it 6 on a scale of 10.
or
On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate it a 6.
The most common scales are one to three, one to four, one to five, one to 10, and one to 100.
I'd give it a (rating)
When you're rating how good something is, you can say what rating, grade, or score you "would give" it:
I'd give it a three out of ten.
I'd give it a B+.
I'd give it two stars.
Why do we use "would" in this expression? Imagine that part of the sentence is left out:
I'd give it a three out of five (if I were rating it formally).