By Conversations, Expressions

Re: Stage left...

Hi, "I've had more heroes exit stage left than a great tragedy. As a stage direction, 'exit stage left' is used in many plays. However, when used in this way in conversation, 'exit stage left' simply means that someone leaves quickly without any explanation. eg I saw...

Re: turns out/ends up

One 'amounts to' the other in the sense that both are associated with the idea of final results or conclusions, but the grammar and more detailed meaning of the two expressions is different, so you can't make an exact subsitution.It turns out that they ..., but They ended up...

Re: cut/curtail/shorten the length of his speech draft

-------- SHORTEN commonly implies reduction in length or duration CURTAIL generally adds to SHORTEN the idea of docking, a cutting that in some way deprives of completeness Merriam Webster Unabridged Dictionary ---------- I think this example from the New York Times shows the...

Re: How to negate this sentence using "can" and "will"? (referring to possibility)

You can negate them as you say, yes. I think that most of the time, however, people use will to guess who is there; they don't as often use won't to declare who is probably not there!Be aware that many of the expressions you have been studying recently have just one or two typical...

Re: at loss words

She is never at a loss for words. Idiom or expression that means never unable to participate in the conversation. So she is always talking!!

confused about 'would'

I know 'would' carries many meanings. My problem is sometimes I find it difficult to tell which meaning the speaker uses. I think I understand its hypothetical usage, and in some contexts, its politeness usage. Below is a post that has several woulds I have trouble interpreting. I also...

Re: going to be late

Hi N2g, Your analysis is good. Context will determine if you're using the expression as an excuse to break off what you're doing. If you're calling the people you expect to meet, then you would tell them the truth. You can say, "I'll be about five minutes late," or...

Re: What does "pad the bill" mean?

Hi, What does "pad the bill" mean? The context is a conversation between a lawyer and a client, the client says "they won't know if you pad the bill?". If you pad something, it makes it get bigger. In simple terms, this expression means to add to the bill things that...

Re: It's fun.

Hi Teo I am pretty sure both 'it's a lot of fun' and 'it's lots of fun' are appropriate expressions in everyday conversations, though 'it's lots of fun' sounds a bit informal. I would say 'it's so much fun' instead of 'it's much fun'.

Re: meaning of

a tangent = an unrelated topic of conversation; a topic only tenuously related to the conversation in progress. to go (or to be) off on a tangent is the expression I'm familiar with. I'm not familiar with random tangent. CJ