Search results for 'tag:Expressions tag:Direct questions' matching tags 'Expressions' and 'Direct questions'

Re: Questions about cooking in Canada/US...

RayH — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:17:42 GMT

JCDenton
- I have a problem here with the right meaning of the word suit. Please did she mean..."...and to satisfy their busy lifestyle...."????

Yes, to fit in with the lifestyle of firemen without interfering with their duties.

JCDenton
2) Anna was cooking in that episode really great looking peach, oatmeal griddle cookies. However, I don't know how to say "griddle cookies" in my native language.....Please may I call it peach, oatmeal pancakes? Because griddle is a fryer designated for the pancakes making.

Possibly you could say that they are cookies which have been cooked on a griddle as opposed to being baked as is the usual case with cookies.

JCDenton
3) #2 was a snack, but as an entree, Anna made Salmon && Chickpea Toss.

Please what's the meaning of the word Toss in culinary? I checked some of my favourite dictionaries and not a word about Toss as an Noun

It just means that the salmon and chickpeas were mixed by tossing. http://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t--34817/toss.asp

JCDenton
Anna: You come by it honestly.(??????)

This expression us normally used to indicate that someone acquired a trait or habit from one or both parents. Its use here is not really appropriate. The interviewer is just asking the fireman to elaborate on how he came to be the main cook.

JCDenton
Fireman: Yeah, we have a lot of good cooks at the hall so we all work together. We got some that can't cook so they do the dishes...(big smile)... (Please what does this sentence have in common with the fact that he's an designated cook in there???)

Nothing. The fireman sort of make up his own question and answered that instead of responding directly to the interviewer. You can't really blame him since the interviewer didn't ask a direct question, what with the whole "you came by honestly?" thing.

confused about 'would'

New2grammar — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:10:33 GMT

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 copied a post on would by CalifJim for reference.

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 (1)tell them the truth. You can say, "I'll be about five minutes late," or "I may be a little late." If you're speaking to someone who is about to make you late for an appointment, the expression would(2) mean, "Hey, I'm gonna be late if I don't split right now!" If you just say, "I'm gonna be late," you probably would(3) have already tipped the person off that you would(4) need to end the conversation soon, and as you suggest, you would(5) still expect to be on time if you left immediately.

1) I don't thing politeness is the intended meaning here. To my ear, it carries the meaning of preference.

2) would here means possible? I have zero confidence in this one.

3) it doesn't look like hypothetical usage to me because the if clause is in present tense

4) and 5) should follow the same reasoning for #3, whatever that is.

Please help! Thanks in advance!

CalifJim's explanation on would
Yes. I thought maybe that's what you were referring to.
would in an if clause is possible when the would or the entire if-clause is part of a formula of politeness. if you would be so kind is a typical example of if with would in a "politeness phrase". This formula is equivalent to please. This sort of if-clause does not even have to be classified as a true conditional even though it contains the word if.

The phrase would like as a polite way of saying want, and it too can appear in an if-clause. Note that the idiom would like counts as a present tense for purposes of tense combinations. That is, it may combine with the imperative or the future. The idiom would rather has the same property.

If you would like to have dinner with us tomorrow, please call and let us know before noon.
I'm sure that if he'd like to go with us, he'll tell us. (If he would like to go, he will tell us.)
If you'd rather wait until tomorrow, [just say so / I'll understand].

if-clauses that are part of an indirect question structure are also exempt from the rule about combining if and would:

I wonder if he would object to this procedure.
I don't know if I would agree.
We had not decided if we would go along with the plan.

With the exception of the indirect question structure, which is quite common, these are just a very, very small number of situations where if and would occur in the same clause. The main rule for 99.99% of cases is 'never' to place if and would together!

Re: did I / can I/ have I in affirmative clauses

Tanit — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:08:35 GMT

Hi Giuseppe, and welcome!

The structure you're referring to is called "inversion."

Your examples fall into a singular category (that of negative/restrictive expression) which includes other expressions, such as barely, scarcely, hardly, seldom, little, never, under no circumstances, at no time, etc (there are many more!)

Besides in direct questions, inversion is also used:

In short tags. "I like it!" "So do I"
In formal/emphatic conditional sentences: "Should you need further information, please call ..."
When expressing wishes starting with may: "May you find what you're searching for."
Sometimes in indirect questions, especially when the subject is too long (cannot think of an example right now, sorry!)
Sometimes (quite literary) after as, so, than: "She was very pretty, as were her sisters."

There can be other circumstances in which inversion occurs; these are the ones that came to my mind.

As for your examples, I think the first one needs a past simple because you've got a time reference (Only yesterday did I realise...). I also would put an object (it) after repeat.

I'm not a native either, so you'd probably better wait for one of them.

Re: Question mark needed?

Kooyeen — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:15:42 GMT

I think I've never seen a question mark in those kind of sentences... non natives maybe put it at the end. Maybe natives do too, but because they can't write, not because they don't know English and can't speak.

Pucca wrote:
I wouldn't put the question mark either, but, if that makes the speech more informal, why not? I think, the English we learn from the schools or academies will sound weird to the natives once you go to that country..I got to that point because once I read here that 'in my opinion' was a bit weird, it surprized me since I was taught to use that one much earlier than 'I reckon', but, I gave it up more or less.

Yes, that's true, that's why I always want answers from a descriptive point of view, and I want to try to focus even more on spoken English. Most ESL student focus too much on grammar rules and written English. That's why among ESL students you find a lot of grammar geniuses how can hardly speak and often come out with very odd or overly formal expressions. This is mostly teachers' fault anyway... everything is test-oriented, so if you say "If I were..." you'll get a "Good boy, here's a cookie", if you say "I'm gonna..." you'll only get a "That's a bad boy, bad boy..."

But this is another matter, native speakers don't pronounce indirect questions as direct questions, as far as I know.

Re: About the expression "...what was the matter" or "what the matter was"

Conchita57 — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:51:12 GMT

The exercise sentence is in reported speech, also called 'indirect speech/question'. Therefore, the correct answer is B: 'My mother asked what the matter was with me'. The direct question could have been: 'What is the matter with you?'.

Your last example is fine.

comprehension: Rene

Hela — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:42:03 GMT

Dear teachers,

Would you please correct my answers? But before that Iâd like to ask you if I understood the meaning of the underlined expressions or ideas. Furthermore, Iâd like to ask British teachers if they confirm what she says about the âBritish thingâ and give me more elements about this British attitude. And what about Americans, is it true that they are more extrovert? Thank very much for your help.

TEXT: An interview with Rene Wyndham (How is "Wyndham" pronounced, please?)

Interviewer: So how did you come to write that song, Rene?

Rene: Well I wrote it a few years ago after Iâd been at a rather formal dinner party, sitting next to (1) a crusty old stick, a lady I knew, and I thought âThis is going to be a bit of an effortâ, and I plucked up courage and started chatting to her about herself and she said sheâd been in Egypt and various things. And I was following the line of the conversation and all of a sudden she stopped dead and looked at me and said: âIf youâd really like to know more about me I shall write out my curriculum vitae for you!â And I thought that was so rude after making that effort that I (2) looked around and thought âWell what are other people talking about?â And I realized that other people donât ask direct questions, itâs one of the things, unwritten laws of social etiquette. You skirt the issue if youâre trying to find out things, or you (3) make polite niceties and nice noises at dinner parties but you donât often say what your emotions are doing underneath.

Interviewer: Can I come back to something you said? You said something about people not asking direct questions. Why do you think that is?

Rene: I think itâs partly fear, that they feel that they themselves will be exposed if theyâre asked those questions, and there is some sense of losing face by showing too much of yourself. I think it might be a particularly (4) British thing because I was for instance in the USA with people Iâd never met before, went to a very large dinner party, and within seconds people were telling me what their psychiatrist had said about them and their problems with the grocer and so on. Things that nobody in England would (5) open out and do because there is fear, there is a protective barrier and a sense of inferiority for anybody who dares to disobey these social norms.

Interviewer: Rene, when we talked about this song I think once before, you mentioned something about the way people donât listen to one another, and that was one of the reasons that you had written the song, you were very concerned about this.

Rene: Certainly a lot of my songs are concerned with communication. I was initially very inspired by the works of Wesker and Pinter and Albee and the way they show the people talking past each other, through each other, but never with each other, and this is something that in different ways I try to show in a lot of my songs. I even try and find the gulf between the Third World, the developing world, and our own world, because some of (6) the things people talk about there miss each other by miles. And (7) we do this in our own... unless youâre really close to people and you have a total trust, very often you say things as much to defend yourself as to listen to them. Youâre so concerned with the kind of impression you ought to be making that you fail to be listening to whatâs coming back to you from them. (8) Weâre all guilty of it.

Interviewer: Right, especially in that situation.

Rene: Very much so, and the more you know somebody, the more you relax and probably allow yourself to listen properly to them. That does demand a lot more energy of living that they simply havenât got time to make space for another personâs being within them.

Interviewer: You mentioned your other songs just now. What sort of other things do you write about in you other songs? What themes?

Rene: Well one of the other themes Iâm very concerned about is the use of time. I wrote one for instance about the fact that you give people flowers long after theyâre gone, and when people are leaving a firm that theyâve been working for, you give them a drink and say: âWhat a jolly good fellowâ and so on. But at the time they were there perhaps youâd never noticed them, never took the time again to listen to them properly. (9) We always seem to be missing the mark as far as time goes. I hate the thought of time rushing past. I really want to live every single minute to the full. Some of the songs are expressing that. The fact that you never have anything but this second that youâre living in, that when youâre looking to the future or the past, that doesnât really exist at all. And yet a lot of us find it the hardest thing of all, to coincide with the second that weâre living in.

Interviewer: And well, perhaps a final question. Why do you write songs at all? Why songs? Why not poetry or novels or something else?

Rene: Itâs something to do with a sense of rhythm. Thereâs a terrifically enjoyable discipline about fitting into a nutshell your own thoughts. In a poem youâve got more freedom, youâre not restricted by the music. But music itself is a wonderful art from and it conveys emotion more directly than anything, to me anyway. More directly than painting. More directly than theatre or whatever. If I hear a piece of music, thatâs it, instantly, in the heart. Thereâs even music therapy and so on, which shows that it can do this. If one can convey by oneâs own creativity a mood in another person through the music, and then enhance it with a discipline of well-chosen words, then I think youâve got a perfect portrait of an instant communication.

VOCABULARY:

1) an unpleasant irritable lady?

2) left the old lady and listened to other peopleâs conversations?

3) use clichÃ©s and say things that would not upset anyone?

5) show their inner feelings?

6) Does she want to say that British people wouldnât understand the way people in the third world communicate with each other because they always talk about intimate problems even with strangers and donât feel guilty about it?

7) British people will do the same only with close friends or relatives?

(8) = weâre ashamed of it?

QUESTIONS:

1) How does Rene describe the old lady? As an unpleasant irritable lady?

2) What was the old ladyâs reaction to the way Rene was conducting their conversation? Explain.

Suddenly she thought that Rene was nosy, indescrete? By telling her if she wanted her curriculum vitae showed that it wasnât the thing to do.

3) How did the incident affect Rene and what did she learn from it?

Rene stopped talking to the old Lady and left her to hear other peopleâs conversations and noticed that no one was talking about personal and intimate things. She learned that for British people it is rude, unseemly to ask personal questions. It is a sign of bad manners. So if people wanted to know more of their interlocutors they needed to be more diplomatic and not so direct perhaps.

4) What does she mean by âa British thingâ?

This attitude is paculiar to British people who are introvert and inhibited. They never reveal themselves in their true colours because by doing so they may jeopardize themselves, become an easy target for criticism, which is a sign of weakness.

5) Is it also âan American thingâ? Explain.

This is not the case of Americans they are more extrovert, outright, spontaneous, and like talking about themselves.

6) In her reflection over social communication, why is she contrasting âtalk withâ and (/ with ?) other similar verb constructions?

She contrasts âtalk withâ with âtalk pastâ and âtalk throughâ to show that people do not really communicate: exchange ideas, expreriences, feelings and emotions. They only have a superficial contact with others, they do not touch their heart, do not learn anything from them and miss a lot by doing so.

7) What is the point she tries to make about âthe use of timeâ and how does it relate to human behaviour in society?

She says that she tries to take advantage of the present moment whereas people tend to look at the past or the future and do not give much importance to the moment they are living. They do not appreciate the company of the people they are with at the present and so miss very important things and can be left with regrets.

8) What main advantage do songs have over other art forms?

Music makes you feel emotions that otherwise you might not feel only with prose, poetry or drama. It touches the heart of people more instantly than any other form of art.

She prefers writing songs because she finds interesting the fact of being obliged to fit her own thoughts to a piece of music and being restricted by its rhythm. It demands a lot of discipline from the writer.

Thank you very much in advance,

Hela

Re: Is/Will

Elida — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:08:10 GMT

CalifJim wrote:
we can't use "will" after "when"..
Not true. We can't use will after when if when is an adverbial conjunction of time, that is, if it tells when something happens. We can use will after when if when simply introduces an indirect question, typical after expressions like I don't know or I can't guess or I have no idea.

In the case above, the when clause when he will come does not tell us when 'I don't know'. 'I don't know' at all times, or in general. My lack of knowledge is not restricted to the moment in time described by the when clause. It's an indirect question. When will he come? I don't know.

CJ

Understand.

Re: Is/Will

CalifJim — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 18:30:59 GMT

we can't use "will" after "when"..

Not true. We can't use will after when if when is an adverbial conjunction of time, that is, if it tells when something happens. We can use will after when if when simply introduces an indirect question, typical after expressions like I don't know or I can't guess or I have no idea.

In the case above, the when clause when he will come does not tell us when 'I don't know'. 'I don't know' at all times, or in general. My lack of knowledge is not restricted to the moment in time described by the when clause. It's an indirect question. When will he come? I don't know.

CJ

Re: inverted word order

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 16:05:39 GMT

. direct question

negative adverbs that begin a sentence

comparison

adv place at the beginning of a sentence

omission if

expressions with'only' that begin a sentence

so, neithe, nor

Re: Conditional (bis)

just the truth — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 17:15:01 GMT

1) Would you please help me finish these clauses ?

a) If you were to give him a chanceâ¦
b) If you were to fail â¦

c) Would it be possible to use the indicative âIf you ARE â¦â in the above clauses ? What difference would it make?

JTT: It's theoretically possible but the more common use is, "If you give him ..." ; "If you fail ..."

==============

2) How can I make a polite request using âIf + will or wouldâ?

If you will / would â¦.

JTT: Both are polite, more so than .

If you would [be so kind as to] {do something}.

, being less polite, is often used when you ask someone to do something while you, at the same time will do something.

If you'll help me with my move, I'll help you with yours.

=================

4) If our documents had been in order we could have left at once. (âcouldâ here expresses ability or permission or both ?)

JTT: means "possiblity"; it would have been possible. There could be {it's possible} that there is an element of permission in there.

==============

5) Why do we use the subjunctive in one sentence and the indicative in the other ?

a) If I WERE riding a bicycle I would be much happier.
(difference with âIf I WAS riding a bicycleâ¦â?)

b) If my car WAS working I could / would drive you to the station. (difference with âmy car WERE workingâ¦â?)

JTT: ENLs use both forms because both forms have identical meanings. The subjunctive is a remnant of an older system. All subjunctive forms have other forms tha perform the same semantic task. There are differences in levels of formality. For all that is required to form a "subjunctive meaning" is a past tense FORM.

=================

6) Do sentences a) + b) have the same meaning ?

a) If he had been able to see it clearly, he would remember it better. (now)

b) If he could see it clearly, he would remember it better.

c) If he had been able to see it clearly, he would have remembered it better. (then)

I donât like these examples because their meaning is not clear, would you have better examples of this kind ?

JTT: Examples a) & c) could have the same meaning, could both refer to the same situation. The focus is just slightly different. Let's do an example to illustrate.

If I were Hela, I would be female. {my focus on the state of being a female}

If I were Hela, I would have been born a female/in Greece/to Mr & Mrs {___}.

{here my focus has shifted to your birth}

As you can see, Hela, the style chosen depends upon the context, what it is that you want to say.

================

7) a) Are the future and the conditional incompatible with the following expressions ?

unless, except if, provided/providing that, on condition that, as/so long as, suppose/supposing that, what if, in case, if only.

b) would you please give me examples with âexcept ifâ?

JTT: At first blush, I don't see why not, Hela, but feeding you examples won't, to my mind be as worthwhile as you making some of your own. That way it will be easier to spot mistakes and rectifiy them.

c) Is it true that âunlessâ cannot be used in Type 2 conditional and in indirect questions?

What about: âI would not attempt â¦ (what can I say here ?) unless I were sure of succeeding.â ?

JTT: Again, I don't see why "unless" can't be used. There may be some specific reasons for some circumstances.

âI would not attempt it unless I were sure of succeeding.â

âI would not attempt â¦ (what can I say here ) unless I were sure of succeeding.â

JTT:

You can say almost anything here, Hela; language is about the infinite.