27
votes
How can I avoid ambiguity in the sentence "I cut the middle of the hose"?
I cut the hose in half.
I (and I think most people) would assume you were talking about doing what is represented in the first and third pictures if you said that.
To describe, the second, I would ...
- 8,034
17
votes
Accepted
How can I express the idea that the content of a book is all about a certain topic, say the oil industry?
Very simply, "the book is about the oil industry". This covers most cases.
If you want to emphasise this you can use adverbs such as "only" or "solely". You could say, &...
- 228k
16
votes
How can I avoid ambiguity in the sentence "I cut the middle of the hose"?
@sharken’s answer may be precise, but even as a native English speaker I would have to reach for a dictionary to be certain of the meaning of axial:
I cut the hose along the longitudinal/axial ...
- 263
12
votes
Accepted
How can I tell someone that they are not allowed to express their opinions, in English?
Both are acceptable, though the first one has connotations that might make it not work in this context. If someone says they "don't have a voice" in a matter, the implication is that this is a bad ...
- 1,150
8
votes
Accepted
When your income and expenses do not add up
The expression used in bookkeeping is balance, employed as both a noun and transitive or intransitive verb to designate an equality of positive and negative values.
His income and expenses are in ...
- 175k
8
votes
You are in a toilet and someone knocks on the door. What do you say to him so that he won't enter?
There are numerous ways to inform someone that you're using the restroom. Here are some brief ways.
Occupied.
That's the first thing that came to my mind.
I think a more polite phrase would ...
- 45.4k
8
votes
How to say there is no water available?
The water is cut off.
For me, that sentence suggests a deliberate action.
Living in the UK, this is such a rare event that I would probably feel the need to be explicit, e.g.
"There's no water ...
- 12.5k
8
votes
Accepted
If appropriate, do something
"If appropriate" is fine. It is also common to write "when appropriate", "where appropriate", "when/where applicable", and "when/where necessary". I'm ...
- 68.6k
7
votes
How can I tell someone that they are not allowed to express their opinions, in English?
If you need to explicitly tell the person their opinion is not wanted, you might use
Thank you for your thoughts, but we need to decide this on our own.
with emphasis on "we" and "our own", is a ...
- 66.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Other ways to say "His English has got rusty"
As in the comments,
His English has become [or "got", or "gotten" in American] rusty.
or
He's out of practice at [or "with"] English.
If you want something more ...
- 1,041
6
votes
Accepted
Formally say "thank you for taking the time and effort in doing something"
Instead of ending the letter with these sentences, a correspondence reply letter usually start with these lines.
"Thank you for taking the time to write this letter..."
This is perfectly natural ...
- 8,288
6
votes
Accepted
How to blame bad luck?
The person who didn't get the job might say:
That's just my luck.
An observer might say:
Sorry; that's so unlucky.
6
votes
How can I avoid ambiguity in the sentence "I cut the middle of the hose"?
As a practical matter, I'm assuming that the person shown is cutting out a part of the hose that has a leak, and splicing the two good pieces back together with a hose mender. So you wouldn't say "I ...
- 1,001
6
votes
How to say there is no water available?
I like this question. Annoyingly, it's happened to us a few times recently. I naturally said:
The hot water's off.
And I think that if the cold water had also been absent, i.e. no water at all, I ...
- 2,840
5
votes
When your income and expenses do not add up
The most common idiom for this is probably that the person is living beyond their means.
For example:
Signs You Are Living Beyond Your Means: "Living beyond your means is easy to do in a debt driven ...
- 41k
5
votes
Accepted
Does "Do I misunderstand something?" sound natural?
While Do I misunderstand something? is not wrong, it's not entirely natural either.
More common expressions that express the same idea are the following:
Did I misunderstand something?
Am I ...
- 36.4k
5
votes
How to blame bad luck?
The problem with trying to answer a question like this is that informal English has literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of ways to express sympathy for a bad outcome by blaming it on a pattern of ...
- 32.1k
5
votes
How can I avoid ambiguity in the sentence "I cut the middle of the hose"?
Something can be split in half, for example a tree
Something can be cut in half, for example an apple
But you could also describe it as being spilt down the middle, because both sides of the apple ...
- 28.4k
4
votes
Accepted
When a bad intention turns to a bad happening to that person
A common expression (where I'm from at least) used to describe a situation as you have described is:
What goes around, comes around.
In other words, what you do to others, whether good or bad, ...
- 9,853
4
votes
Accepted
When you cut off all your ways back
You sentence is grammatically correct, but nobody would say that. Probably the most idiomatic way of saying this would be
He has burned his bridges.
- 61.1k
4
votes
You are in a toilet and someone knocks on the door. What do you say to him so that he won't enter?
You can say almost anything you like, but obvious choices are things like "Occupied!" (to describe the state of the bathroom stall, which is occupied by you) or "Don't come in!" (the basic imperative)....
- 9,524
4
votes
What are the ways to say that I was in a place without the possibility to connect with my phone?
I think I was in a dead zone is a good option in this context.
In my opinion, service is a commonly used word here. I think reception is also common. Coverage is possible, but I think it's not a ...
- 45.4k
4
votes
Accepted
To hold a child in the hands
I'll expand on my comment on the original question with a few other points to try to make this into a full-fledged answer.
There are two possibilities, depending on what you're trying to mean with "...
- 12.2k
4
votes
Other ways to say "His English has got rusty"
I would probably just stick to "gotten rusty" in most contexts:
His English has gotten rusty. (American)
His English has got rusty. (British)
The (slightly more formal) alternatives that ...
- 951
4
votes
How can I express the idea that the content of a book is all about a certain topic, say the oil industry?
There are lots of ways:
"[book] is devoted to" or "entirely devoted to"
"[book] gives a comprehensive overview of the oil industry and its history"
"[book] ...
- 276
3
votes
When you're going to indicate that usually the wealthy people are mightier
The expression
He casts a long shadow
comes to mind - when something or someone that casts a long shadow, it means they have considerable influence on other people or events.
However, your ...
- 9,853
3
votes
How to ask the hair stylist to cut off your hairs less or more on some parts of your head
You can always say
Please trim the left side.
Make it shorter on the right side.
Leave the center as it is, while making the sides shorter.
Hope that helps.
- 177
3
votes
Accepted
put a metal net around a soccer field
What usually gets put up around playing fields especially in urban environments is a
fence
He would say
They put up a fence around the playing field.
specifically it is a chain-link fence.
- 66.3k
3
votes
How can I tell someone that they are not allowed to express their opinions, in English?
I think it depends on if you are trying to be polite or matter-of-fact.
If you were talking to your boss, or a respected elder, or good friend, neither of those work. Both are grammatical and fine ...
- 4,675
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible