Search results for 'tag:Weddings tag:Expressions' matching tags 'Weddings' and 'Expressions'

Re: Grammar Questions

Goodman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:35:40 GMT

Hi Carissa,

Welcome to the forum,

I have never seen or heard anyone who would use âin behalfâ in any context.

The expression is always âon behalfâ, meaning representing.

On behalf of my family, I would like to take this time to thank everyone for coming.

As to the auxiliary words usage, itâs often depending on the mood and intent of the writer to express the willingness and certainty.

I will come to her wedding. Very certain

I would come if I have time- itâs conditional but possible.

I wonât go to her weeding- definitely not, a negative certainty.

I shall (rarely used) perhaps, I needed to â¦iffy

I must go to her wedding- very certain, a strong will

I might go to her wedding. Not very sure.

I hope this helps.

Re: Placebo

Vanmee — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:02:26 GMT

Further comments:

21.I serve my head up on a plate. I BRING MY HEAD ON A PLATE, THOUGH I DON'T KNOW WHAT FOR? (Do you remember that story in the Old Testament? SalomÃ© asked King Herodes for the Apostle Johnâs head; then, I think that the expression âto serve someoneâs head on a plateâ means that you surrender, that you give yourself, your heart, your love, to another person without expecting anything in return.)

30.There's nothing here but what here's mine. HMM, I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THIS LINE. THERE IS NOTHING HERE, BUT SOMETHING IS MINE..HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT? (Itâs a nonsense verse, but with a lot of sense: Even if thereâs nothing here, this nothing belongs to me, itâs mine.)

31.Something borrowed, something blue. WHAT IS "BORROWED"? WHAT DOES "BLUE" MEAN IN THIS CONTEXT?

(Something old, something new

Something borrowed, something blue

And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

This is a rhyme is a tradition in British weddings: It is said that the marriage will be successful if the bride wears âsomething old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a silver sixpence in her shoe.â Well, a coin in the shoe must be a bit uncomfortable!)

Please look through my narrative essay and correct grammar please

T_nattawat — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:06:41 GMT

Do you think the title is relevant to the story? I want to say like "For all your good hope, one day, he will know it" or "Don't regret for your good doing" but can't come up with any good title. Would you mind suggesting me any? If not, it is fine. Thank you so much for your help.

Regret Not For Good Deeds
Leo and I have been friends since we were in diapers. We live in the same neighborhood, go to the same schools, and know each other's house like it is our own. Even though Leo is not one of those handsome guys, he is very intelligent. In fact, he always ranks among the Top Three in our class. Apart from his academic excellence, he has a girlfriend that every guy would envy. Her name is Daw. She is a slim, tall girl, with twinkling black eyes. Her charming appearance and confident expression make all guys dream of her. However, there have been many rumors about this girl going around. I have never believed all that rubbish though. Until one night when I was at a pub. I saw her and was going to say hi; but then I have to stop because she was kissing with Bill, a rich and good-looking athlete in the school. I tried to tell myself that I might be drunk but the fact was that I just arrived and had not yet drunk anything, not even water. The following day I anxiously go to Leo's house and tell him what I saw last night. Believe it not, he chooses to trust his girlfriend, not his best friend who he had known for all his life. He says that I am jealous of him and made that story up to destroy their relationship. Before he runs away, he says, "get away from my life." I am stunned.
I come home and tell my mom what had happened. Much to my surprise, she starts smiling and says, "you are so me, my son." She asks me to calm down and tells me that she understands how I feel because she herself once had been in the same situation. She recalls her memory; a story that change the way I see the world begin.
Luk was married to Chi, but not everybody agreed with their relationship. Sue, Chi's mother strongly opposed it and declared that she would do anything to prevent the marriage. In her eyes, Luk was just a poor girl coming with empty hand to squander their wealth. Luk had realized this since they met for the first time, when her husband-to-be's mother greeted her with a piercing look and said, "from your head to your toe, nothing could match my son." Yet, their wedding ceremony was one of the biggest events in the area. All elders in the village were invited as well as many relatives in China. Probably, the only person who was home that day was the groom's own mother.
Everyone in the house loved her because she was kind, patient, and hard-working, but the attitude of her mother-in-law remained the same. She was so melodramatic and would blame her for every little mistake. One day, she shouted and accused Luk for trying to kill her by preparing water that was too hot. This kind of story kept repeating day after day. Luk was lost. She had done everything to please her mother-in-law but it was worthless. This painful position made her cry many times. Thanks to the support of her beloved partner and Luk's belief: "good deeds beget good results," she did not give up.
One day, Sue got the flu. She had a high fever; aches and pains spread all over her body forcing her to stay in bad all the time. Unfortunately, most of her children including Chi had happened to be away for several weeks, and the rest were too busy working. Sue was left home alone with Luk, the very last person on earth she would want to be taken care by. Although Sue had treated her badly, Luk did not mind sacrificing day and night to her. She would woke up at five in the morning to make a bowl of rice porridge, prepare Chinese medicine, and serve her. After finished her housework routine, she would boil water to made a pot of ginseng tea and had it next to Sue's bed to drink at night. Not even a word of "thank you" came out from her hard-to-please mother's mouth.
Four rough days had passed, Luk was very exhausted due to the fact that she had not gotten enough sleep lately. Everything was like usual, she got up early, cooked food, and prepared medicine. While she was handing a glass of ginseng tea to Sue. KRESHH! She dropped it. The glass was broken as well as all Luk's courage. She knew that she will be blamed for her clumsiness. Luk kept saying "sorry" like crazy. As to her surprise, what the mother said was, "it is okay; just prepare me another cup of that." That few words meant so much to her. She knew that a saying, "good deeds beget good results," is true. All her effort was starting to pay off. She quickly ran with smile to the kitchen, and a new cup of tea was prepared and served.
Just before Chi came back, Sue recovered from the flu. Although a mother-in-law still could not fully accept her daughter-in-law as her child, the relationship among them gradually got better. Sue was less arrogant towards her daughter and talked to her in a much nicer way. Unfortunately, she did not live very long; a couple years later, she passed away because of breast cancer. You will not believe what was her last words: "I am sorry, Luk, my wonderful child." My mom closes her story with a smile but her eyes are close to tears.
I am relieved by that story; at least I know that I have done the right thing.
That evening, Leo calls me saying that he is extremely sorry; he did not mean like what he said. He admits that he always knows that Daw does not take their relationship seriously; but he has denied that fact and fooled himself. Before he hang up, he says,"Thank you, dude, for pulling me out of that fancy world."

Re: The most common slang words

Irnic — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:58:32 GMT

five finger discount - shoplifting.

flaky: unpredictable.

flashback: sudden memory.

flick (1): film; movie.

flick (2): to give something or somebody the flick is to get rid of it or him/her

floating : intoxicated

floozie - a mistress or girlfriend.

flommox - confuse

flutter - a bet (on horse racing or football)

footie - Abbreviated form for football.

for crying out loud ! - a expression of frustration or anger.

forty winks - a short sleep or nap.

fox: attractive, alluring person.

freebie: something that does not cost money.

full monty - 'the whole lot', everything.

full-on - powerful, with maximum effort.

funny farm - mental hospital or institution.

funny money - counterfeit money.

gaff - house or flat.

gander - to look at.

geek: an unattractive person who works too hard.

get it: to understand something.

glitch: flaw.

go bananas: go slightly mad.

good onya : good for you, well done

goof (1): make a mistake.

goof (2): a silly and foolish person.

goof off: waste time.

goof up: make a mistake.

goofy: silly.

Gordon Bennet - an exclamation.

grand: one thousand dollars.

grass: marijuana.

greaser - slang name for a 1950's style man.

grog : alcohol, beer.

grub: food.

grubby: not clean.

gut: a person's stomach; belly.

guts: courage.

gyno - gynaecologist

hacked off - fed up, annoyed.

hairy: difficult; dangerous.

ham-fisted - clumsy.

hammered - drunk.

handcuffs: an engagement ring or wedding ring

hang a left: make a left turn.

hang a right: make a right turn.

headcase - mad

Re: gerund or verbal noun

CalifJim — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:25:23 GMT

All of your examples are gerunds if we stick to modern terminology.

Forget about the terminology verbal noun. It's total garbage!

It has many different definitions, depending on the author and when the grammar book was written.
_____________

The modern definition is given at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_noun

A verbal noun is a noun formed directly as an inflexion of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions. This term is applied especially to gerunds, and sometimes also to [bare] infinitives and supines [i.e., full infinitives].

That is, there are three types of verbal noun: gerunds, bare infinitives, and full infinitives.

So anything that is a gerund is also a verbal noun, because a gerund is one of the types of verbal nouns.
____________

The modern definition is echoed at

http://www.ielanguages.com/english.html

Gerunds: [Like participles,] Gerunds are also formed by adding -ing to the verb, but they function as a verbal noun [as opposed to the participle, which is a verbal adjective] and are normally preceded by articles or demonstratives. The singing was excellent.
___________

A completely different definition is found here:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-VERBALNOUN.html

VERBAL NOUN. A category of noncountable abstract noun derived from a verb, in English by adding the suffix -ing. Like the verb from which it derives, it refers to an action or state: writing in The writing has taken too long; hearing in His hearing is defective. Verbal nouns are frequently combined with the preposition of and a noun phrase that corresponds to the subject or object in a clause: The grumbling of his neighbours met with no response (compare His neighbours grumbled); His acting of Hamlet won our admiration (compare He acted Hamlet). Verbal nouns contrast with deverbal nouns, that is, other kinds of nouns derived from verbs, such as attempt, destruction, and including nouns ending in -ing that do not have verbal force: building in The building was empty. They also contrast with the gerund, which also ends in -ing, but is syntactically a verb.

Note the last (underlined) sentence. By this definition only usages like The neighbors were acting like fools are considered gerunds -- not all the other examples that preceded -- examples that we would all agree are gerunds in current terminology.
_____________

The next definition is more than 100 years old, and I've seen it quoted on this site. Note that it is classified (see the URL) under "Classic Literature". It is useful only as a historic document -- not as a guide to modern English and modern syntactic analysis.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wmbaskervill/bl-wmbaskervill-grammar-parts-nouns.htm

An English Grammar

1896

by W. M. Baskervill & J. W. Sewell

273. It [the gerund] differs from the participle in being always used as a noun: it never belongs to or limits a noun.

It differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which the verbal noun has not) and of expressing action (the verbal noun merely names an action, Sec. II).

[Sec. II. is actually Sec. 11, where nouns are discussed. The discussion of verbal nouns is within a category called Abstract Nouns, so in Section 11 verbal nouns are called by their more specific name: Verbal Abstract Nouns.]

II. The VERBAL ABSTRACT NOUNS Originate in verbs, as their name implies. They may beâ

(1) Of the same form as the simple verb. The verb, by altering its function, is used as a noun; as in the expressions, "a long run" "a bold move," "a brisk walk "
[These are called deverbal nouns in modern terminology -- or 'zero-related nominals' or just 'nouns'.]

(2) Derived from verbs by changing the ending or adding a suffix: motion from move, speech from speak, theft from thieve, action from act, service from serve.
[These,too, are called deverbal nouns nowadays -- or just 'nouns'.]

(3) Derived from verbs by adding -ing to the simple verb. It must be remembered that these words are free from any verbal function They cannot govern a word, and they cannot express action, but are merely names of actions. They are only the husks of verbs, and are to be rigidly distinguished from gerunds (Secs. 272, 273). [These are nouns that end in -ing. They have acquired fixed meanings as nouns, referring to something more concrete than the action of the underlying verb.]

To avoid difficulty, study carefully these examples:

The best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks; the moon caused fearful forebodings; in the beginning of his life; he spread his blessings over the land; the great Puritan awakening; our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; a wedding or a festival; the rude drawings of the book; masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning; the teachings of the High Spirit; those opinions and feelings; there is time for such reasonings; the well-being of her subjects; her longing for their favor; feelings which their original meaning will by no means justify; the main bearings of this matter.
______________

It is debatable whether anything whatsoever is to be gained in the study of modern English by resurrecting these older definitions.

CJ

Re: English expressions or slang...

nona the brit — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:06:44 GMT

Different cultures hold different parties for different reasons before a wedding. What exactly are you talking about?

Over in the UK it could be engagement party, hen night, stag night. Over in the US it could be engagement party, rehearsal party, batchelor party, batchelorette party....

Re: English expressions or slang...

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:19:46 GMT

how can I say the name of the party when someone has before wedding

Re: went through, went through with

User_gary — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:17:42 GMT

Yankee wrote:
Hi Gary

Is this what you mean?

I was able to achieve my goal even though I encountered many obstacles along the way.

The expressions "go through something" and "go through with something" have different meanings. Neither one works very well in your sentence. Here are some possible ways to use those expressions:

I had to go through a lot of difficult situations in order to achieve my goal.

After catching John in the arms of another woman, Mary had second thoughts about marrying him. However, in the end, she went through with the wedding as planned.

Thank you Yankee for your nice explanation in all my threads.

Re: went through, went through with

Yankee — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:41:52 GMT

Hi Gary

Is this what you mean?

I was able to achieve my goal even though I encountered many obstacles along the way.

The expressions "go through something" and "go through with something" have different meanings. Neither one works very well in your sentence. Here are some possible ways to use those expressions:

I had to go through a lot of difficult situations in order to achieve my goal.

After catching John in the arms of another woman, Mary had second thoughts about marrying him. However, in the end, she went through with the wedding as planned.

Re: ya fast, ya loose, ya throwing up?

CalifJim — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:41:28 GMT

" ya fast, ya loose,ya throwing up?" what is the meaning?

The overall meaning is "How are you holding up under the pressure of the approaching event of the wedding?"

Google "fast and loose" to see what raw material the author used as the basis of this nearly nonsensical word grouping. In the absence of any further contextual cues it seems to me that this phrase has nothing whatsoever to do with fasting or having diarrhea. The meaning of fast in the original phrase had nothing to do with not eating, nor with quickness. It meant "fixed, immobile". So fast and loose meant, roughly, "holding together and falling apart", which, again roughly, is what you might ask someone about to be married: "Are you holding together or falling apart (emotionally)?" The reference to vomiting is added for humor -- really falling apart -- to the point of being sick about the impending event.

CJ

P.S. "Fast and Loose" was a game; hence the expression "playing fast and loose", from "playing 'Fast and Loose'".