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Peter Humphrey wrote: |
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> On Saturday 02 January 2016 15:06:37 Alan McKinnon wrote: |
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> |
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>> "half as big again" means "50% larger than". |
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> That is, take the original measure, add one-half of it again and you have |
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> 1.5 x the original. |
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> |
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>> i.e. calculate 50% and add it, making the total 150%. |
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>> It's an English idiom, so don;t try to figure it out from each word, |
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>> just recognize the whole phrase. English is full of that shit. |
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> That's too rude. Rather, I'd say it's rich with all manner of idioms, all of |
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> which are expressive and help to make the point clear. Tough on people new |
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> to the language, but that's life. Numerous invasions and occupations by |
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> foreign peoples have contributed to what we see today. |
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> |
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> In contrast, Americans are set on destroying all this richness, I suppose in |
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> the interest of "simplicity", which introduces either ambiguity or ugliness |
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> instead. They've already practically scrapped four whole verb tenses, and |
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> now adverbs are going the same way. |
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> |
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> Pigs and whistles, indeed. |
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> |
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As a American and a person who only speaks English, I'm sometimes |
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stumped too. Sometimes I have to read something twice or struggle to |
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find that word I am needing to use. I suspect I am not alone in this. |
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I might add, this is why when I read a email, I try to put the most |
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positive light on it. Sometimes even a native English speaker just |
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doesn't quite get the right thing to come out. Add in spelling errors |
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and such or someone speaking English as a second or even third language |
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and you can really get a mess. Let's not get into those translation |
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thingys either. LOL |
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I'll be glad when spell checkers add "thingy" to the list. ;-) |
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Dale |
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:-) :-) |
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