Some tricky questions
Every now and then I'm going to post a couple of tricky questions about English grammar and usage for your edification, amusement and delight! In other words, they aren't a part of the course, but you might find them interesting anyway. I've posted the answers as a Comment to this post, so if you want them, you just have to click on the Comment link at the bottom of the post (in other words, this is a tricksy way of enticing you to get used to the Comment feature too!). Here's the first lot:
1. Which of these is right?
a) I'm looking forward to meet you.
b) I'm looking forward to meeting you.
Why?
2. You see these abbreviations in a business letter. What do they stand for … and what do they mean?
a) i.e.
b) e.g.
c) q.v.
d) N.B.
e) p.p.
3) You're listening to a presentation about a major new exhibition centre which is proposed to be built in Kalmar by the Chinese. One of the people in the audience says, "It's going to be a white elephant." What on earth do they mean?
1. Which of these is right?
a) I'm looking forward to meet you.
b) I'm looking forward to meeting you.
Why?
2. You see these abbreviations in a business letter. What do they stand for … and what do they mean?
a) i.e.
b) e.g.
c) q.v.
d) N.B.
e) p.p.
3) You're listening to a presentation about a major new exhibition centre which is proposed to be built in Kalmar by the Chinese. One of the people in the audience says, "It's going to be a white elephant." What on earth do they mean?
posted by David Richardson at 1:03 AM
1 Comments:
Here are my answers:
1. The right answer is b).
This is actually a very complicated bit of grammar … but you only really need to know the answer! The problem is with the word 'to' (as in 'looking forward to'). Sometimes it's part of an infinitive (to go, to meet) … and the Swedish equivalent then is 'att' (att gå, att träffa). Other times, however, it's a preposition (to town, to work), and it's got a couple of different Swedish equivalents, such as 'mot' and 'emot'.
Now, what comes after a preposition is usually a noun (at the shops, to the bank) … and English verbs all have 'noun forms' which end in '-ing'.
If you changed 'meeting you' for 'a holiday' or 'a cup of coffee', you can see that you need that noun form to make the sentence make sense grammatically.
See what I mean about it being complicated! The bottom line, though is: don't be fooled by 'to' - it's got more than one meaning.
2a) i.e. = id est = that is = dvs (in Swedish).
2b) e.g. = exempli gratia = for example = t.ex.
2c) q.v. = quod vide = see that (as something similar from a different source) = a way of making a cross reference to another document
2d) N.B. = nota bene = note well = OBS!
2e) p.p. = per pro = throughout on behalf of = the person who signed this isn't the boss, but has the boss' permission to sign it on her behalf.
3. A white elephant is something that is completely useless, but very expensive. In India, at the time of the Empire, there were people whose religious beliefs involved worshipping albino elephants. These elephants had elaborate palaces built for them at great expense, and they did no work. The phrase found its way into the general pool of English and is used quite frequently in business.
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