At a snail’s pace

How do people use At a snail’s pace?

Everyday English, fine in speech, journalism and reports. It goes after a verb of moving or progressing: “traffic moved at a snail’s pace”, “the talks are going at a snail’s pace”. It usually sounds a little frustrated.

Also said at snail’s pace, at a snail pace

At a snail’s pace in real sentences

• The traffic is moving at a snail’s pace.

  Tatoeba, sentence by megamanenm, CC BY 2.0 FR

• Things are advancing at a snail’s pace.

  Tatoeba, sentence by Hybrid, CC BY 2.0 FR

Where does At a snail’s pace come from?

English Wiktionary gives no date and no theory, and none is needed: snails are slow and everyone knows it. Wiktionary notes the noun “snail’s pace” is almost always used in the phrase “at a snail’s pace”, and quotes it from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) among others.

Mistakes learners make with At a snail’s pace

Learners write “with a snail’s pace” or “in a snail’s pace”. The preposition is “at”, same as “at a fast pace”.

Other English idioms like At a snail’s pace

• slow as molasses
• slow as a snail
• at a crawl
• at a walking pace