ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: double meaning

Grammar Geek — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:38:31 GMT

"Stir" and "stare" do not sound the same.

Anyway, google homonyms and homophones and you'll find lists, I'm sure.

Re: double meaning

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:32:08 GMT

oh no.
i am not concent about sentence usage, i was just looking for a list of words

Re: double meaning

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:13:56 GMT

words that may sound the same but spelled different e.g stir & stare.

words that have the same spelling but can mean different things,given the context written in.

Re: double meaning

Grammar Geek — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:59:38 GMT

No, I'm afraid not.

I would never understand "red water" to mean a shark. I thought you were referring to red tide.

I would never understand "dark night" to mean a person.

With the first, although it was not Bush himself who did any of the bombing, because he ordered it to happen, it's not really a double meaning. If you say "the mayor closed the park" he probably didn't run around himself locking the gates, but ordered it done.

Are you studying this concept yourself or in school? I think, if it's self-study, you may want to let it rest for a little while. You're trying too hard and will soon become frustrated.

Re: double meaning

wholegrain — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:03:00 GMT

I am not even sure if they are correct, that's why I am asking, but I meant in the first one the US army and then the president; in the second one I meant sharks and then water and in the last one I meant a person in the night and then night.

Can you tell me if those usages are correct?

Re: double meaning

CalifJim — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:33:17 GMT

wholegrain
What about these?

What about them? They are all bizarre. I don't see a double meaning in the first, fourth, or the last.

Re: double meaning

CalifJim — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:29:37 GMT

She left in a Cadillac and a bad mood.

New2grammar
What's wrong with the example? I understand it perfectly.

Well, it's very funny to a native speaker! As explained, it mixes two uses of "in".

Shall we try another?

The children were in the way and the kitchen.

Re: double meaning

wholegrain — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:22:20 GMT

What about these?

Bush has bombed Iraq, but is a good president.

The scepter ordered them to kill, and is shining in its majesty.

Tide is wonderful, but when it is red it kills.

Red water can kill; however, it is full of living things.

Dark night is a stalker, but can be full of romance.

Re: double meaning

New2grammar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:01:11 GMT

CalifJim

And my perennial favorite, showing that literal and figurative meanings cannot be mixed:

She left in a Cadillac and a bad mood. (in to show literal position vs. in to show figurative position)

What's wrong with the example? I understand it perfectly.

Re: double meaning

CalifJim — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:06:36 GMT

wholegrain
Can a given word have two different meaning in the same sentence?

Much humor depends on it, yes. But there the whole sentence usually has two meanings at the same time.

Your example is a case where the word has two meanings, one after the other. That's different. It just makes your reader confused and frustrated; whereas your job is to make what you write easy to understand. These kinds of confusions are the mark of bad writing:

The book was very amusing and on the third shelf. (book as narrative vs. book as object)

Rabbits multiply very quickly, and so can calculators. (multiplication as reproduction vs. multiplication as computation)

And my perennial favorite, showing that literal and figurative meanings cannot be mixed:

She left in a Cadillac and a bad mood. (in to show literal position vs. in to show figurative position)

Re: double meaning

Grammar Geek — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:37:21 GMT

I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean.

Generally, if a word has two different meanings, you don't use it as the subject of a sentence and use one meaning for part of the sentence and the other for the second part, unless you do it as a joke. One well-known examle is "You water the lawn, and I, the drinks."

double meaning

wholegrain — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:32:04 GMT

Double meaning

Can a given word have two different meaning in the same sentence?

Whaling is endangering whales and is a endangered specie. Ok, I guess we can't in this case. Well, I would use it, but probably people will tell me it's not for being too awkward and confusing.

The White House is competent, and a beautiful landmark.

The White House as the personnel first and as a landmark then...

Can you give other examples if only the second one is correct to illustrate why?