6
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What's the difference? lie down vs lie
In many contexts, adding preposition down after lying is purely a stylistic choice with no effect on meaning. But sometimes lying down implies a "volitional" action by a conscious agent, so.....
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3
votes
meaning of "as... as could be"
The meaning is closer to 2., to the highest degree. There might also be an implication of being blithely unaware of any reason not to be relaxed, chatting with each other. This might be used to ...
- 6,001
3
votes
Accepted
get yourself set up
In general, "get yourself set up" just means make some suitable preparations for what you are about to do.
It may mean do your research into what performers are guaranteed to be there, what ...
- 8,512
3
votes
Accepted
Understanding “as is” in Sentence Structure
Yes it is one of the contractions common in English. Any native speaker would understand what it means. Note that it can be shortened even further to just "as" without changing the meaning.
...
- 8,512
3
votes
Accepted
What does "Jealousy of someone" mean?
Of in the structure The X of Y can often be ambiguous in English, and will require a context to make clear what is meant. For example:
The jealousy of my sister reared its ugly head.
Without context ...
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3
votes
So called "concrete completion" and how to understand that
I would not call this "clear and concrete completion". I've never heard that term before. They might have meant to point out the difference between instantaneous actions and actions with a ...
- 225
3
votes
Accepted
That is a statement from the West Mercia Police there
You cannot apply the same level of scrutiny to extemporaneous speech as you do to the written word. Most people begin a sentence without knowing exactly how it will end, so reading back a transcript ...
- 108k
2
votes
"Oh, that’s nice!" vs "Ooh, that’s nice!"
I believe the different words “oh” and “ooh” are not interchangeable irregardless of emphasis. “Oh” is used to express comprehension like “Oh!” & ”Oh, ok.”, shock like “Oh!” & “Oh my God!” or ...
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"The same hated one"?
Your reading is close, but more likely is "he did the same thing so many times that it stopped feeling like many actions and just felt like he was throwing the exact same nut in the exact same ...
- 17.3k
2
votes
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"If you keep having this car with you, I will buy it from you next year"
No, keep having doesn't refer to continuous possession. To me 'having [something] with you' implies carrying it around in your pocket!
If you still have/own this car next year, I will buy it from you....
- 59.1k
2
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Accepted
"Both our houses are big"
1. or 2.
There are two houses: “Both … houses …”
They are owned by us: “… our houses …”
It could mean that I own one and you own the other, or it could mean the we own both of them together.
- 1,371
2
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"I get holes in my jeans......" | "My jeans get holed in ........." | "My jeans get holes......."
I get holes in my shoes in six months.
This sounds fine. Such constructions are common, and I would more likely say I have ten dollars in my wallet than my wallet has ten dollars.
(Your proposed &...
2
votes
Accepted
What does it mean: " Don’t shop-order. "
You're reading it incorrectly. It isn't a hyphenated word "shop-order". The hyphen is meant to be a dash (—), also called the em dash. It is longer than a hyphen (-).
The dash is a pause ...
- 108k
1
vote
"I get holes in my jeans......" | "My jeans get holed in ........." | "My jeans get holes......."
Would you accept "I got a pebble in my shoe" as an alternative to "My shoe has got a pebble in it"? The former sentence is a natural way of expressing the fact. The shoe has a ...
- 228k
1
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"If you keep having this car with you, I will buy it from you next year"
keep having is used with repeated or recurrent things:
I keep having this dream where ...
That is, I've had this dream multiple times.
I keep having these headaches.
The headaches are frequent.
...
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1
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"If you keep having this car with you, I will buy it from you next year"
Diving into the deep end here. Stative verbs don't use continuous tenses ie "He is wanting your car" is wrong, though "He keeps wanting my car!" or "He is taking your car"...
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"Shop has been open all day/the whole day" " I have been awake all day/the whole day"
In all three examples, the states as described by the adjectives open, awake, and sick are still true. Hence the shop is still open, you are still awake, and you are still sick.
Edit
If the sentences ...
1
vote
It (so) happened that she was out when we called
I don't find the first perfectly idiomatic with the it-cleft. This would be idiomatic:
She happened to be out when we called.
as would this:
It happened to be the case that she was out when we ...
- 133k
1
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It (so) happened that she was out when we called
Adding "so" just adds emphasis to the suggestion of coincidence.
Two things happened - you called, she wasn't there. There's no suggestion she went out to avoid you, or that you called ...
- 108k
1
vote
Accepted
I don't think it's serving me right
This usage is not the same as the definition you looked up. It's also fairly unusual.
When she says it's not serving her right, what she means is that it's not providing her with what she needs right ...
- 8,730
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vote
Meaning of "To wage the warfare, watch, and pray, show who are pleasing in his sight"
If we pay attention to the punctuation marks (switching the period at the end of the first stanza with a comma), the first and second stanzas can be seen as one long sentence:
THE Lord receives his ...
- 948
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Mine are a bit tight from when I did them this morning
She means that her laces are tight as a result of the way she tied them when she put her shoes on in the morning. Evidently they haven't worked loose at all.
- 59.1k
1
vote
Using WOULD vs simple past to talk about a person
In most of these, it doesn’t matter, but in some it does
Each of these is talking about three events:
An origin event - “making a run”, “[being] ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’”, “financing the training”, etc....
- 1,371
1
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Tenses change the meaning
Since you're asking about the tenses in general I'm not going to use your example sentences.
I owned a car before we moved into the city can have these intended meanings:
I used to own a car (i.e. ...
- 133k
1
vote
Accepted
Tenses change the meaning
before/after + simple past.
As both sentences are different let's first consider OP's sentence A
A)Ihad had a car before she arrived vs I had a car before she arrived.
Both the sentences are ...
- 2,241
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Tenses change the meaning
I had had a car before she arrived.
In this example, there's no indication in the first version that I no longer had a car after her arrival; the two versions have the same meaning.
This applies also ...
1
vote
Accepted
Let's talk about this
Let's talk about this can be used in general discussions and is not limited to things that require step-by-step explanations. Google Books has lots of examples of such general use.
Of course in any ...
1
vote
That is a statement from the West Mercia Police there
It isn't the prosody of "There!" at the end of a statement or action which has the meaning "That's over and done with!" or "Finished!".
The prosody of there in that ...
- 133k
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