Ask questions or just talk about different languages. Since BrainKing is an international game site supporting many languages, this board can be kind of useful.
King Reza: If I could have remembered it right, it might have read a lot better. Somewhere there's a collection of usages in English that are grammatically correct, but are almost never spoken or writen. That was the point I was trying to make. In this collection the word "and" is used. Apparently, and never appears twice in a row as and and. And and is so uncommon and yet it makes perfect sense as I write here, does it not? Untorn would seem like that too, but WatfordFC has found such a simple use of it that it bears to keep in mind the rule about exceptions to the rule. You'd think that as rare as and and is that three ands in a row could not happen in a sentence and have that sentence make sense, right? Consider the two cases of and and and and and and. And and and and and and might be extreme examples of this, but they do exist. Does anyone know of this collection? I'm sure it'd be of some interest to this discussion board. :)
Emne: Double negatives or is it "Yes, we have no bananas?"
As the teacher lectures the class explaining not to use double negatives and uses various examples, the students begin to drift off in that somnolent way they have when their eyes glaze over but still continue to look in the teacher's direction. The teacher senses this and writes some examples on the chalkboard to try and see if anyone is paying attention. He also includes positives with his double negatives in an attempt to show the proper usages. "Logically", he explains, "the use of two negatives in a sentence should make the sentence positive in meaning, but that is not how people talk when they say things like 'No, you cannot have that.' As this is never taken to mean, 'You may have that.' No one says, 'Yes, you cannot have that' or 'No, you may have that.' There is no way to have two positives have this problem and have a negative meaning as in, 'Yes, you may have that.' From the back row a student replies, "Yeah, right."
Emne: Re:Actually, now that I think of it, "Untorn" is NOT a word at all!!!!
Czuch Czuckers: I am afraid your wrong.
And there was something else. If anything is better than having a book to read, it is having a new book, which smells of new book, and whose pages have a special, pristine feel, with shiny cover, unworn and untorn.
King Reza: Inexpensive means "not expensive". Cheap also means "not expensive", but can also mean "of poor quality". When we describe a person as cheap, we mean "stingy, reluctant to spend money".
The prefix in- means "not" in words like inexpensive, inappropriate, inconceivable, etc. Sometimes this prefix undergoes assimilation, so we get words like immaterial, impossible, illogical, irresponsible.
Valuable and invaluable have similar meanings, not because the prefix in- somehow intensifies the word, but because they are based on two different uses of the verb to value. To value can mean "to regard as having value", as in a sentence like "I value this opportunity." If we say something is valuable, we mean that it is worth a lot. But to value can also mean "to assign a value to", as in a sentence like "The stolen merchandise was valued at $3000." If we say something is invaluable, we mean that it is so precious that it is impossible to assign a value to it.
There is also another prefix in-, which comes from the Latin preposition in, meaning "in" or "into". This occurs in words like inhale, inject, intense, implicit, and inflammable. Inflammable means "capable of being inflamed".
The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for untorn. It's not a word you're likely to use every day, but don't let that prejudice you against it.
King Reza: You're right Reza. I typed the sentence incorrectly. I've fixed it. Correct or incorrect? Opposites Flammable or inflammable? Synonyms Go figure. :)
King Reza: Inexpensive is less expensive, but it must get very confusing to a non native speaker, I am sure!
Why would someone say that you have a torn shirt if it was not really torn? "no, its not torn, it is ripped"? "No, it is not torn it is a shadow"? Something like that maybe, but you would not hear "no it is untorn, are you a blind idiot?"
Actually, now that I think of it, "Untorn" is NOT a word at all!!!!
Walter Montego:I think I have to disagree that 'inexpensive' is the opposite of 'cheap.'
However, you puzzled me with your post. I know that the prefix in makes words negative, or changes them into their opposites. Like : Appropriate ---> Inappropriate
But I also know that sometimes, it adds more to the quality of the word instead of changing it into its opposite word. Like: valuabe ----> Invaluabe which means very much valuable, not cheap.
So I'm not sure which one of the above is true about 'inexpensive.'
King Reza: yeah, whole doesn't sound all that good in the sentence you wrote... Especially since a T-shirt that was torn, has a hole, but you may still have a whole t-shirt if no cloth got detached :)
pauloaguia:Yeah, I did think of 'intact' myself, but wasn't sure if it'd be O.K.. To my non-native ears, whole isn't proper there, but I'm not sure.
No, we don't use that sentence very often. The only situation I could think of that would make me use it i sthe following conversation:
A: Hey, your shirt is torn! B: Torn? Naah! It's not torn. It's in fcat very much Untorn (If that's a word!)
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I was teaching my students some new adjectives and for each one I was introducing an opposite to them. When I came to 'torn,' I couldn't think of anything so thought I would like to ask the natives.
BIG BAD WOLF: Well, when you as a native speaker say you'd never say 'untorn,' and another says that she thinks 'untorn' is a word, how can I have any idea?
King Reza: I'd not say inexpensive is the synonym of cheap. Even saying it's low priced is a better opposite. Something cheaply priced maybe, but to just say cheap is not how I'd say it.
Further research found this link: http://www.synonym.com/synonym/inexpensive
Perhaps you're right about cheap and inexpensive. It just seems that where I live the word cheap is not used for some reason unless there's something wrong with what it is you're talking about. Perhaps this is just in my area and how advertisers and television can twist the meanings and usages of words.
By the way this link might help you find lots of opposites and alikes (antonyms)
King Reza: If it's not torn, then it's intact or whole.
Or are you referring to when a shirt was torn but it's not anymore? In that case it probably was mended.
In farsi, do you use the sentence "my shirt is not torn" often? I think it's one of those words that you only use for the positive - if it's torn you say it's torn; if not then it's probably something else but I don't hear people describing a shirt as not being torn very often - unless something is said about it you assume it's not :)
awegzserrhz aesh Can someone translate that into English, it was said in one of my games, and I'm curious to know if it was a good thing. Thanks very much.
I have forgotten how to make links that show not the URL, but a word without using my rich text editor. When I want to edit the written part on top of this page I don't have access to rich text editor.
pauloaguia: In that case King Reza could add the Languages link to the header of this page and those of us interested in more sayings to translate can add them here for Fencer to check out. http://brainking.com/en/Languages
Mr. Shumway: a few more suggestions: great looking forward to it send me an invitation what game would you like to play nice roll good job that was luck
Great! Although I would prefer an extra link to the dictionary, as I didn't find it until I followed the link in this board - I would possibly never had looked at "more about languages" ;) edit: I think it may be enough to post a link in the description of this board?
So where can I post the translations of those phrases now? Post them here, send a pm to Fencer?