Regarding the Quiz Question: You're Not Nuts!

Regarding an earlier post, The Quiz Question, if it drove you nuts to read these phrases: Someone we both don't know and Someone we don't both know, then you are ok. Don't worry! The first should technically be Someone neither of us knows and the second one Someone only one of us knows. However, in real English, in the real Universe, the other two are possible and likely within a string of conversation. In fact, I was quoting from an argument I had had. The other person, a Pole, had said one of these, but clearly meant the other. We laughed over it, but as we know, an argument with its intense emotions can produce interesting language. Can you imagine what kind of mistakes I would make trying to argue in Polish? :-o My Polish is at such a low level it is probably impossible for me to argue. It's unfair to judge someone for making language errors when arguing in a language that is not their native tongue. Be generous if you are in this situation! :-P

The last 's' in terms of a sequence

From a song I've been listening to, written and performed by Keith Green, here is a logically loaded construction. I want more than Sundays and Wednesday nights. This is a song criticizing Christians for limiting their dedication to God merely to their meetings at church, which in the Protestant churches is on Sundays and Wednesday nights. It is easy to convey the wrong times though by eliminating the 's' on Sundays. Then it becomes Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, which was not the intention.

• Sunday and Wednesday nights = Sunday nights and Wednesday nights
  
• Sundays and Wednesday nights = Sundays (sometime during the day or all day long and Wednesday nights)

Be careful of sequences and the final 's' on the terms!

The answer...

1. Someone we both don't know
2. Someone we don't both know

In the first case the negative applies to someone, but in the second case it applies to both. So the answer is c. In #1 neither you nor I know the person, in #2 only one of us knows the person.

Quiz Question

Here is a quiz question. What is the difference in meaning between these two statements.

1. Someone we both don't know
2. Someone we don't both know

a. In #1 you and I know the person, in #2 neither you nor I know the person.
b. In #1 only one of us knows the person, in #2 you and I know the person.
c. In #1 neither you nor I know the person, in #2 only one of us knows the person.
d. In #1 only one of us knows the person, in #2 neither you nor I know the person.

This can be tricky! I'll post an answer in the next blog entry.

Regionally Embedded Mistakes

Everywhere you go you find peculiar regional fluctuations in the usage of English. Some of the publishing companies have begun to categorize national versions of English as spoken in countries that are non-native ones. I myself have found some interesting propogations of outright mistakes, but more often bad or antiquated choices of phrases here in eastern Poland. Of course, I have kept in mind that I am not an expert on British English and the older generations have learned this brand and have been pressing it on the younger ones as well. The younger generation speaks mostly American English due to the free access to the Entertainment and Technology industries, which the older generations had been denied.

High Time
You want some examples, don't you? If I said, "It's high time I started grading these test." What would be your impression? Maybe I really AM a cowboy actor! ;-) Perhaps I am simply making fun of myself as if I were lazy, when everyone knows I ain't. :-( If you thought this phrase "high time" was a simple expression commonly used in English, then you should reconsider. It is an expression of slight self-ridicule in the face of a reputation for the oppostie behavior.

I'll be posting more examples, though not only of regionally embedded mistakes. Stay-tuned!