I have some difficulty understanding the meaning of the following sentence
The tailor said to him, "Will you have the suit ready by tomorrow evening?"
It is a sentence given in my exercise. No other context is provided
6
-
1Semantically (meaning), it's equivalent to Will the suit be ready by tomorrow? Syntactically (grammar) it's the same usage as I will have you flogged! (I will cause you to be flogged), so you could "deconstruct + rephrase" the "suit" version as Will you cause it to be the case that the suit is ready tomorrow? – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '19 at 15:55
-
But I think, that person should ask this question to the tailor – user93387 Aug 26 '19 at 16:18
-
What is the exercise? What does it ask you to do with this sentence? – Weather Vane Aug 26 '19 at 16:20
-
1@PiyushYadav: Ooops! I didn't take in that part of the specific meaning in context! Actually, the only way to consider it "valid" is to understand it as a very weird version of the usage in Would you have me abandon my principles (is that what you're expecting me to do?). It's even more weird because the tailor asks will you rather than would you, but the word have thus approximates to "require" [something to be true]. Specifically, Do you require that it should be ready by tomorrow? – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '19 at 16:57
-
1Where did you get the sentence? It might be some weird thing to do with Indian English finding the usage "acceptable" (it's certainly not, to mainstream Anglophones). Or maybe it's just poor phrasing from a non-native speaker. – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '19 at 16:59
|
Show 1 more comment
Say now the suit is torn or ripped.The tailor is now asking a person that knows how to sow
"will the suit be fixed and ready to be sold tommorow evening?"
(ime just saying fixed so you understand because the suit has to be fixed or decorated to be ready to give back to the tailor)
Meaning that she/he is asking if the dress will be ready to be sold somewhere at 5pm to 10pm - those are the evening times
FumbleFingers is correct but I will answer in another way and post a link for you.
I have some difficulty understanding the meaning of the following sentence
The tailor said to him, "Will you have the suit ready by tomorrow evening?"
"Will you have the suit ready by tomorrow evening?"
means
(will) [are you able to] have the suit (ready)[prepared} by tomorrow evening?.
will modal verb (ABLE/WILLING) C.E.Dictionary (also 'll) used to talk about what someone or something is able or willing to do:
ready adjective (PREPARED) example Dinner's ready! C.E.Dictionary
-
1Actually, this isn't right. The customer might say those words to the tailor with the meaning you give here. But for the tailor to say it with that meaning simply wouldn't make sense. You therefore have to parse it as will being a less common alternative to Would you [like it to be the case that] the suit is ready by tomorrow? As in Is that your wish? – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '19 at 17:04
-
Ugh, @FumbleFingers, I assume the exact opposite: the tailor is asking if the customer will have the suit in her possession, ready to hand over to the tailor, for the tailor to start alterations, by tomorrow. (Say the customer is receiving a new suit in the mail.) – whiskeychief Aug 26 '19 at 17:40
-
@whiskeychief: Okay - I can get my head around that interpretation too. But my gut reaction is to say both interpretations require a bit of "contrivance", so it's still a terrible example to come up with in the context of teaching people how to use normal English in normal contexts. – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '19 at 17:48
-
Please remember in past times and even today in high end shops, The tailor is the boss and usually does not do the manual work. He is most probably asking a member of his staff if they will have the suit ready. Which would be his normal duties as the supervisor and customer liaison. – Brad Aug 26 '19 at 23:45
