The English Thread

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 18 May 2011, 05:15

Question:

What do you mean by The fire was all but out.?

Could mean literally the fire is burning low & in need of additional fuel or it is also used to suggest that someone is not as emotionally or passionately involved as they were. (For example after 20 years of marriage the fire was all but out, the passion had gone out of the relationship).

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Inside, the clerk is being taken down a peg by Anna Fitzgerald's mother.

and

Kate—who isn't a fan of snotty demands—decided the nurse needed to be taken down a peg.

Taken down a peg = being reprimanded or getting lectured to.
Originally referred to class snobbery … someone was acting in a superior way and was taken down a peg or put in their place … told they were only a servant for example or as in your quote above the nurse was probably told she was a nurse and should not be behaving as if she were the doctor.

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What do the author mean by "Go figure"?

Go figure is an American slang term which really only means ‘try to work that out’ or ‘try to understand/explain that’. The author is saying that there is something that does not make sense between the two lifestyles. While it has a question mark it is not really a question and is not expected to be answered.

Hope this helps.

Butterbescotch · Post by **Butterbescotch** » 22 May 2011, 01:52

Thanks Fran :]

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Question:

1. What do you mean by a "Debut Novel"? Is it a novel which makes a writer famous? If so, can a Debut Novel only one book or can be several books?

2. I heard this a lot from rant reviews. What do they mean by one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional Characters?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 22 May 2011, 05:11

Butterbescotch wrote:Thanks Fran :]

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Question:

1. What do you mean by a "Debut Novel"? Is it a novel which makes a writer famous? If so, can a Debut Novel only one book or can be several books?

2. I heard this a lot from rant reviews. What do they mean by one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional Characters?

1. A dubut novel is simply the author's first published novel ... nothing to do with whether it was successful or not.

2. A one-dimensional character would be lacking depth, not very well defined or very straight forward ... they are what they are and don't demand a lot of effort to understand or work out their motives etc.
Two or Three dimensional characters are deeper, more complicated & demanding a lot of effort to understand and sympathize with. They have a lot of 'sides' to them and are generally the really interesting characters in the story & the ones who generate lots of discussion!.

Butterbescotch · Post by **Butterbescotch** » 24 May 2011, 00:26

So what is the difference of second-dimensional and third dimensional character?

Also, what do they mean by "cutting-edge performance"?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 24 May 2011, 05:26

Butterbescotch wrote:So what is the difference of second-dimensional and third dimensional character?

Also, what do they mean by "cutting-edge performance"?

Sorry Butterbescotch if I didn't explain
A two-dimensional character would be a somewhat more complacated or deep character, with depth of character & requiring some effort to understand & IMO a three dimensional character takes loads of effort & you really have to pay attention while you read to come to terms with their actions. They are complicated characters, difficult to understand, possibly unpredictable with multiple 'sides' to their personalities, the ones that you really don't know what they are going to do next or how they are going to react in a given situation ... the characters that make really good books (e.g Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Hamlet or Dracula!). Is that any clearer?

Butterbescotch · Post by **Butterbescotch** » 28 May 2011, 07:40

Thanks. I get it now.

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Question:

When the coach divides his gym class into shirts and skins.

What do you they mean by shirts and skins?

Melaniep · Post by **Melaniep** » 28 May 2011, 08:41

He's dividing them into two teams. To make it easy to tell who is on which team, one team keeps their shirts on, the other team takes theirs off.

Butterbescotch · Post by **Butterbescotch** » 29 May 2011, 08:27

Melaniep wrote:He's dividing them into two teams. To make it easy to tell who is on which team, one team keeps their shirts on, the other team takes theirs off.

Thanks about that. I guess I overanalyzed it.

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Question:

What is the difference between "I lied" and "I had lied". ? I guess it is the tense but as a writer when do I apply it?

Evapohler · Post by **Evapohler** » 29 May 2011, 14:18

You say "I lied" when referring to a past event. If you are already referring to a past event, such as "I apologized to Pete this morning and admitted that I had lied to him," then you need "had lied" to make your tense past perfect, or a step beyond past tense.

Butterbescotch · Post by **Butterbescotch** » 31 May 2011, 09:19

@Evapohler

Thanks but I'm still confused but I can't find any sentence yet to prove my confusion. So, I hope you answer next time.

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Question:

1.) I sometimes saw sentences that contains "had had". Is that a typo?

2.) I recently made a comment in a thread. Which is correct: In addition to X's argument, I believe books are more educational than movies or In addition to X's argument, books are more educational than movies ?

Evapohler · Post by **Evapohler** » 31 May 2011, 12:44

"Had had" is not necessarily a typo. Let me think of an example:

I told the obnoxious man on the train beside me that I had had enough of his antics.

And either sentence from your second question can work, but "I believe" doesn't really need to be stated since a reader will understand that your statements reflect your beliefs.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 31 May 2011, 13:15

Question:

1.) I sometimes saw sentences that contains "had had". Is that a typo?

2.) I recently made a comment in a thread. Which is correct: In addition to X's argument, I believe books are more educational than movies or In addition to X's argument, books are more educational than movies ?

1) I don't think the 'had had" is a typo but I think it would be considered grammatically incorrect this side of the Atlantic ... I don't claim to be an English grammar expert.

2) IMO the first is a statement of opinion ... 'I believe xxxx'.
The second is stating as a fact that 'books are more educational' ....
a statement of fact versus a statement of opinion.

Butterbescotch · Post by **Butterbescotch** » 03 Jun 2011, 08:27

@Evapohler and Fran.

Thanks for the response but I guess I got you confuse. I am looking of the "misplace modifiers". Which of them is grammatically correct?

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Question:

"They are expected to keep laying off workers for months to come."

Does laying off mean removing?

Evapohler · Post by **Evapohler** » 03 Jun 2011, 14:03

"Laying off" means terminating, or firing, but not because the employee did something wrong. Employees are "laid off" when the company can no longer afford to employ them.

Can you rephrase your question about the misplaced modifiers? In the meantime, I can show you a couple of example:

This is INCORRECT: While surfing the internet, my eyes caught site of an interesting photo (Eyes can't surf).

Here's another INCORRECT: Setting aside those thoughts for later, a bird flew into my window (Birds might have thoughts, but the speaker means to modify herself and misplaces the modifier onto the bird).