Search results for 'tag:Prepositions tag:Idioms' matching tags 'Prepositions' and 'Idioms'

Re: what is the difference between "send" and "send in"?

Avangi — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:08:24 GMT

Good question, b-c,

I think there's a sequence involved here. Everybody's been poised to go in, sort of like an invasion. The mission is on hold because of political considerations. "Send in" is sort of an idiom like "go in."

Shall we send them in now, or shall we wait awhile?

Send in the paratroopers vs. send the paratroopers. It's more dramatic with "in."

Under more normal circumstances, we'd say "Many countries are sending relief teams and disaster experts."

Prepositions lead to endless contradictory examples, but in general, I'd say you may choose to use "send in" when you're sending someone "into" some kind of a place, like a country or a house or an office.

Mr. Jones is here to see you, sir. (reply) Please send him in.

Best wishes, - A.

Re: preposition

Mister Micawber — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:54:14 GMT

.
This is right:

Please tell me how the phrases "in addition" and "on account" could be prepositions.

They are both phrasal prepositions (some consider them idioms), as in:

In addition to sushi, I also like sashimi.
I stayed in bed on account of a migraine.

Re: line against/along

Avangi — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:23:22 GMT

The prepositions are both fine and natural, but in AmE we'd add a third, so to speak. We use the expression (idiom) "line up" to form a line. I guess BrE is "que." I don't know if it can stand alone, or if it's "que up," or if I'm spelling it correctly.

I wonder if "up'" becomes an adverb in "line up."

Re: Hope it is English

RayH — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:56:31 GMT

OrcaDeen
1- why do you disagree on the word"belongingness"?

2- I checked the idiom, to ""raise a few eyebrows at"" and found that it means " to be surprised". But I inquire why you chose to insert "their" and delete "a few"? And why you deleted the preposition "at" although it is part of the idiom?

As far as I know "belongingness" is not a word, say "sense of belonging" instead.

You are correct about the meaning of the idiom "raise a few eyebrows" but your use of it is a little "off", for lack of a better word. I think the only requirement for using this idiom is to have "raise" and "eyebrow". For example: "It didn't raise many eyebrows", "That should raise some eyebrows", "that ought to raise an eyebrow or two", "her miniskirt raised more than a few eyebrows at the meeting", etc.

Try something like this:
The butcher's stoic demeanor and constant visits to the mosque for prayer did not raise any eyebrows among the villagers.

I'm not sure exactly what meaning you are going for. I can't really find a way to use "hold his tongue" without making major changes to your original sentence, even then I'm sure that particular idiom fits here. Anyway, I tried to suggest a sentence that conforms as closely as possible to your meaning as I understand it.

Re: Hope it is English

OrcaDeen — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:23:56 GMT

Thank you so much for your controbution

But I have some inquiries:

1- why do you disagree on the word"belongingness"?

2- I checked the idiom, to ""raise a few eyebrows at"" and found that it means " to be surprised". But I inquire why you chose to insert "their" and delete "a few"? And why you deleted the preposition "at" although it is part of the idiom?

After all, thank you for your concern

Re: Differences between English and your native language

Kooyeen — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:38:51 GMT

Hi CB,
I wouldn't know where to start! English grammar is pretty different from Italian grammar. However, there are a lot of similar words (one example: government - governo), and several similar structures and idioms. The problem is that there are also several false friends, and lots of features that are very confusing because they wouldn't make sense in Italian.

One example is prepositions: on the net, on a pc, in a movie, in a dictionary, in a newspaper... in Italian you could use either "in" or "on" (nel, nella, etc / sul, sulla, etc.), and no one would notice (I hope so, lol). I always have to be careful to use the right prepositions in English, in Italian I pick one at random, lol.

Then there are tricky words like "any" and "some", which in Italian are both "del, delle, etc.", so you don't have to choose. The same is true of "few" and "little" (=un po'), and for "already" and "yet" (=giÃ )... and many other things I don't remember right now.

And there are a lot more tricky things, like negative questions (we use negative questions to sound "casual" and "polite", but in English they sound completely different), genderless pronouns (in Italian it's so simple, it just depends whether the noun is masculine or feminine, so death is a "she", and hate is a "he"), etc.

Anyway, don't think Italian is simple... it's really a mess. And there are a lot of regional differences, REALLY a lot. Just think that I hardly ever speak Italian, so I wouldn't say my Italian is very good at all.

Re: can or could

CalifJim — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:22:20 GMT

Liveinjapan
Could anyone tell me the difference between the sentences below?

How do I look?

How do I look like?

What do I look like?

how and like are mutually exclusive. You cannot have both in these sorts of expressions. Once you use how, you must suppress like. So *How do I look like is impossible!

how? and like what? mean almost the same thing when the verb is look. But there are important differences. Note the groupings below.

Susan looks [sad]. *Susan looks [how]? [How] does Susan look?

Susan looks like [a clown]. *Susan looks like [what]? [What] does Susan look like?

Susan looks [like a clown]. *Susan looks [like what]? *Susan looks [how]? [How] does Susan look?

_______

[How] does Susan look? She looks [sad].

[How] does Susan look? She looks [like a clown].

[What] does Susan look like? She looks like [a clown].

__________

So How? substitutes for an adverbial expression -- which can be a prepositional phrase "like ..." or a single word adverb or any other appropriate adverbial expression.

And What? (in "like what?") substitutes for a noun -- which can only be the noun that fits after the preposition like.

_________

What makes this difficult if you are imitating the speech of natives is that the missing (fourth) pattern is not quite right logically, but people do use it anyway, treating the combination as an idiom.

[What] does Susan look [like]? She looks [sad].

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Einmalige Narizsse — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:53:16 GMT

Well, maybe I'll say, where and with things I have difficulties.

Firstly and it's the most important: tenses. In my mother tongue, we don't have so many freaking tenses
Secondly, this problem is with every new language. The way you think and make sentence. Sometimes I translate from my language to english. and it makes no sense. Or more correctly, it would be: i used to translate.
Thirdly: "a/an" and "the"- of course, you can get used to it and learn, but i really hate it
Moreover: prepositions and phrasal verbs
And last but not least: English pronunciation: huge, Hugh, hug- I know, maybe for you, it's clear, but for me it's silly ;D and "woman" and "women" (by the way, I love English idioms, they're so funny)

But there's is one thing I have to add. Honestly, I think, that there are more difficult languages, for example Hungarian, Hebrew (especially, alphabet. I've been learning it for 2 months and I know just few letters ) or Polish. Even German- have you ever seen adjective? and the way you have to inflect it?

Regards,
Einmalige Narzisse

Re: Any idea about a suitable intensificator?

Ej!_nihilist — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:14:49 GMT

thank you for your effort ...

Well, to say the truth, I am kind of confused as well...
The fact about "the intensifier" (sorry about that, the proper word is probably "intensifier" rather than "intensificator")
is what makes me feel uncomfortable about the sentence.
Actually it comes from my school papers I recieved from my lecturer. And in the chapter "Intensification of adjectives", right below the title and without any further clue
there was that sentece. I also consider "for" as the correct preposition.
I thought it could be some kind of idiom or a fixed phrase.

Maybe it was just a mistake made by my lecturer of putting this sentence in the wrong place.
In that case I'm terribly sorry about wasting your time...

Best wishes!

Re: Why does workout mean physical exercise?

Vorpar — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:06:30 GMT

A lot of English idioms use prepositions to give the word a new meaning:

shut down, shut up, work out, work up, break down, break up, etc.

Sometimes the dictionary will tell you where the words came from, or you can look at an etymology website.

My guess is that doing hard work like construction (where you have to lift heavy things) resembles lifting weights at a gym.