[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
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tinanam0102  +  796122 Fri, 26 Jun 09 09:13 AM
Hi Avangi,

 

"What a set of pipes on him"  means he have god-talent and voice-production equipment in / on him.  Positive, not sarcastic.  

 

Slang expressions are difficult.

 

My teacher used to say that Opera singers tended to be buxom becasue they have more lung capacity to hold and repress the gas whey they sang.   (Sorry. My native word)

 

Thank you again Avangi.

 

Regards,

TN

Joined on Wed, May 6 2009
Full Member 413
Avangi  +  796668 Fri, 26 Jun 09 06:01 PM
tinanam0102
“ Positive, not sarcastic.  Right.


to hold and repress the gas whey they sang.    I love it!

Joined on Mon, Nov 19 2007
Veteran Member 8,207
". . . le plaisir delicieux et toujours nouveau d'une occupation inutile." - Henri de Regnier
tinanam0102  +  797292 Sat, 27 Jun 09 04:09 AM
Hi Avangi,

 

I understand now.  Thank you.

 

Regards,

TN

Avangi  +  797970 Sat, 27 Jun 09 03:41 PM
Re "I'm a sucker for X," I left out one thing I had intended to mention:


There's a usage similar to "He's a soft touch."


When a con man or a scam artist is looking for a mark (person to run his scam on), he looks for a gullible person (a sucker), or sometimes someone with a "big heart."  Panhandlers can usually tell by looking at a person whether or not he's likely to give them money.

We might say that a person has a "weakness," or a "soft spot in his heart" for some particular thing or situation.  "He can't resist readheads."  "He's a sucker for readheads."

My mother used to have an expression, "He's a sucker for punishment," meaning someone mistreats him and he keeps coming back for more.  "He doesn't know when he's had enough."

tinanam0102  +  798155 Sat, 27 Jun 09 06:35 PM
Hi Avangi,

 

In my situation, Did my last customer think I overcharged him the product he was not supposed to be charged?  Honestly, my boss negotiated with him the price range, and I followed up on the service.  So based on the email communication between my last boss and this customer, the price was fixed: USD.35 per phone, but it was USD.30, my boss made a mistake, and my boss asked me to talk to him before production begins.  So I explained everything to me because not my boss's fault, but my typo.  Then this customer sent me an email: "Go ahead.  I'm a sucker for you". 

 

So I asked him to confirm if he would accept USD.35 in a second email, and he said yes as a reply.  So I billed him USD.35 for 300pcs.  Do you think he hold the grudge at that time because he think I deceive him to make him yield as a result of a surge of his customers' needs?

 

"He can't resist readheads."  "He's a sucker for readheads."  (I couldn't find this entry in the dictionary)

he keeps coming back for more.  "He doesn't know when he's had enough.  (What do you mean?

 

Regards,

Tinanam

Avangi  +  798231 Sat, 27 Jun 09 07:49 PM
tinanam0102
“ "Go ahead.  I'm a sucker for you". As you continue to fill in the details, I'm less inclined to say he thought badly of you.  It's still a little ambiguous. People are naturally suspicious of car dealers, and not without reason.  But it could be a good-natured reply   -   especially if your relationship has been good up to this point.

It could be used in the sense below:  He likes you and he trusts you, even though he thinks he may be foolish to do so.


"He can't resist readheads."  "He's a sucker for readheads."  (I couldn't find this entry in the dictionary)  A "redhead" is a person with natural red hair.  Whenever I see a redheaded girl, I go all weak in the knees.


he keeps coming back for more.  "He doesn't know when he's had enough.  (What do you mean?   The idea is that a sensible person would understand that when someone continually abuses him, the prudent thing would be to stay away.  But this guy is foolish.  He doesn't know when to quit.

tinanam0102  +  798899 Sun, 28 Jun 09 07:44 AM
Hi Avangi,

 

Thank you for the explanation. 

 

I looked up "go all weak in the knees", do you mean "you like redhead girl?"  but the idiom is "go weak at the knees."  Any difference?  Yahoo has "go weak on your knees."

 

Sometimes I find it hard to study English, because I lack the ability to discern the usage.  If I see a phrase, which is a typo error, from the caption of the news, I wouldn't know whether it is a typo, and would assume it is correct. 

 

Thank you

Tinanam

 

 

 

 

Avangi  +  798923 Sun, 28 Jun 09 08:05 AM
Ha!  It's like when Margaret Thatcher famously said to George Bush senior, "Don't go all wobbly on us, George," or something like that.


Sometimes we are overcome by emotion and seem to lose our resolve.  We lose our ability to act with calm self-control and steady determination.  Sometimes seeing a girl can effect you like that.  Or it may be fear of something.  You may be actually physically trembling, or weak in the knees; or it may be a sort of mental incapacitation.  Maybe you "freeze," unable to act.


I'm only familiar with "weak in the knees."  Perhaps the others are BrE.

tinanam0102  +  799186 Sun, 28 Jun 09 01:15 PM
Hi Avangi,

 

I've learned a lot from this thread.

 

Thank you.

TN 

 

 

 

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