Help with English

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Saint, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    Potatoes are large and dense. They hold a lot of heat. If you pick up a hot carrot, you can toss it from hand to hand and it will probably cool down just enough that you won't be badly burned. But a hot potato will stay hot for five minutes and burn the skin off your hand!
     
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  3. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    4,752
    has been mixed at best = means unsure?

    cheap money = money is cheap?
    jack up = increase?
    choke off = reduce the speed?
     
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  5. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Cheap Money. Money borrowed at low interest rates, with easy repayments.
    Jack up. Increase. Metaphor. You jack up a car to raise it so that you can change a tyre.
    The jack is the tool you use to do this.
    Choke off. Metaphor. "Choke" is to reduce the air supply by applying pressure to the neck.
    Has been mixed. Has been a mixture of both good and bad.
     
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  7. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    No. You divided the sentence incorrectly.

    Directives vary from [#1: administrative regulation of private activity] to [#2 government ownership of a technological operation.] There are two choices.

    I suggest that you post these questions in the Lingustics subforum, since they are about language rather than the various sciences.
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    I strongly suggest that you post these questions on the Linguistics subforum, where they are appropriate, and where people who are interested in language and knowledgeable about language will try to help you.

    For example, the executives of an energy company could appoint a well-known environmentalist to their board. This would suggest that they intend to make the company more "green" (supportive of the environment).

    At the state and municipal level, laws ("statutes") can be enacted (often by the election tactic of the popular initiative, which is extremely common in California) which require members of the state, county or city government to be more responsive to their citizens and less responsive to the wealthy and powerful people in their jurisdiction.

    Product warranties are often very weak. They may expire so quickly that the purchaser doesn't have enough time to decide whether the product is of good quality. They may have onerous requirements that make invocation of the warranty too much trouble to bother with. And they may limit compensation to such a small amount that they are ineffective.
     
  9. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    being so happy

    She hated him for being so happy.


    Hi again. Could anyone kindly tell me if I am correctly changing the sentence above? and which one do you use?

    In addition, as far as I know, today, usually you do not use such a construction( being something).

    She hated him for to be so happy.



    Thanks in advance
     
  10. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    The first is correct.
    The word "so" emphasises the adjective after it.
    For example: " The building was so high that she had to strain her neck to see the top of it."

    The following mean almost the same:
    She hated him because he was happy.
    His happiness made her hate him.
    She hated him for being happy.

    It would be unusual, although possible, to hate someone because they were happy.
    More likely would be:
    "She envied him because he was so happy" or
    "She hated him because he was so lazy"
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    No, you're wrong. This is a very common construction.
    • John was honored for being the most successful student.
    • I was criticized for being lazy.
    • We felt sorry for our neighbors for being in their house when the furnace exploded.
    • The cat, Felis sylvestris lybica, is noted for being the most popular domestic animal in the world.
    No. This is never correct. You can say, "She hated him because he was so happy."

    As I have asked before, please post your questions on the "Help with English" thread at the top of the list. They are all about help with English, so this is the proper place for them.

    Thanks,
    Moderator
     
  12. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thank you so much.

    However, I should ask my question in another way.


    What is the difference between the following?


    She hated him for being angry.

    She hated him for to be angry.
     
  13. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,862
    The first one is correct English the second one is not.
     
  14. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    You never, ever use an infinitive in objective case. Gerund, yes; infinitive, no. The first sentence was fine. She didn't hate him simply for being happy; she hated [resented] him for being so [very] happy [presumably because she herself was miserable.] Why change it to anything?
     
  15. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thank you all so much.
     
  16. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    She hated him for being happy.


    She hated him because he was happy.


    she hated for him to be happy .

    Would you possibly explain the difference between these ?


    Many thanks
     
  17. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    It might be useful for you to make a list of constructions that you should not use.
    "For to be" is one of them.

    @Fraggle
    Does some logic underlie these constructions, or is it a matter of learning which ones to use and which not?

    "For to be" is meaningless
    "In order to be" has meaning.
     
  18. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    being, to be, or be ?

    She hated him for being happy.


    She hated him because he was happy.


    she hated for him to be happy .

    Would you possibly explain the difference between these ?


    Many thanks
     
  19. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    Excuse +ing Excuse+ an adjective

    Excuse my rude.

    Excuse my being rude.



    Would anybody possibly kindly explain their differences?


    Many thanks

    NIMA
     
  20. Olinguito Registered Member

    Messages:
    73
    The second sentence is okay but the first should be

    Excuse my rudeness.​

    BTW I believe Fraggle Rocker wants you to reply to the Help with English sticky thread instead of starting a new thread every time you have a question.
     
  21. Cyrus the Great Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    185
    Feel like vs. Fancy

    Could anyone please tell me when would you rather apply the following? or what is their difference?



    FEEL LIKE VS. FANCY




    Thanks in advance
     
  22. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,738
    Cyrus.
    Fraggle has asked you to add your questions to the "Help with English" thread.
    He doesn't want a new thread for every question.
    Post the question here if you want him to answer your question:
    http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?109499-Help-with-English

    He is usually very patient, but he might start getting annoyed
    if you don't do as he asks.

    With regard to your question
    there are slight nuances between them, but essentially they mean the same thing.
    I think that your current concern should be to concentrate on learning which constructions you cannot use,
    rather than learning the contextual difference between correct ones.

    With some of the constructions, you have repeated the same error,
    rather than learning from previous answers informing you that that the construction is not allowed.
     
  23. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    There's really no important difference between these two.

    This is an awkward way to form a sentence, although I suppose it is (just barely) correct grammatically. But it has a different meaning from the first two.

    The first two indicate that she hates him. The third one indicates that she only hates his happiness. She wants him to be unhappy.
     

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