Please explain me.

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Perceptor
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Please explain me.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-02, 20:45

Hello. I'm Nicholas. I have a question for you. I couldn't understand one thing from the film "Non‑Stop"(2014). When the main character had boarded on a plane, he got the message to confirm his status. And then he wrote somewhat that i can't undestand. Can you explain me this phrase: Image. I certainly understood the meaning, but I can't understand the structure of it. Can you explain me when it's used? Please correct my mistakes cause I haven't a lot of experience in English. Thank you beforehand.

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby linguoboy » 2014-06-02, 20:53

This is related to the usage "All systems are go", which seems to have leaked into popular slang from earlier military use. I'll see what I can dig up on it. In general, I think of this as a peculiar predicative adjectival usage of the word "go" not related to its general verbal or nominal functions.
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Re: Please explain me.

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-06-02, 21:26

So, I noticed you used "explain me" many times. But I guess you should say "explain to me". What do you think about it? What do native-speakers can say?

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-02, 21:32

"Explain me" is incorrect (as noted, and with exceptions noted, below), but it is an incredibly common turn of phrase among native speakers of romance and slavic languages, and perhaps other languages too, isn't it?

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-06-02, 21:35

I'd like to know an opinion of native-speakers if it's possible to say "explain me" фтв in which kinds of situations?

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-02, 21:37

Yeah, i'd like too =)

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Dormouse559 » 2014-06-02, 22:15

The best way to phrase the thread title is "Please explain this to me". Ditransitive verbs like "give" and "explain" have two main objects: the recipient (who receives something) and the theme (the thing given, explained, etc.) Normally, only the theme can appear alone ("I gave some money", "I explained the problem"). If the recipient is named, the theme often must appear as well ("I gave some money to my friend", "I explained the problem to my teacher").

"Please explain me" is grammatical, but it means something completely different. It means "Please explain who I am". Some ditransitive verbs let you express the recipient without using "to" (like "give" or "tell"), but "explain" isn't one of those. Therefore, "me" gets interpreted as the theme, the thing explained.

EDIT:
LifeDeath wrote:So, I noticed you used "explain me" many times. But I guess you should say "explain to me". What do you think about it? What do native-speakers can say?

Perceptor wrote:"Explain me" is incorrect (as noted, and with exceptions noted, below), but it is an incredibly common turn of phrase among native speakers of Romance and Slavic languages, and perhaps other languages too, isn't it?

LifeDeath wrote:I'd like to know an opinion of native-speakers native speakers' opinions on if/whether it's possible to say "explain me" фтв and in which kinds of situations.

Perceptor wrote:Yeah, i'd like that, too =)
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Re: Please explain me.

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-06-03, 7:33

Is the line "I'd like to know an opinion of native-speakers" ungrammatical? Why can't I say that way? In other situations like that, should I also say using " 's"?

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-06-03, 7:49

Perceptor wrote:"Explain me" is incorrect (as noted, and with exceptions noted, below), but it is an incredibly common turn of phrase among native speakers of romance and slavic languages, and perhaps other languages too, isn't it?


Просто на самом деле звучит странно. Есть некоторые глаголы после которых просто необходимо использовать "to". Я не знаю насчет исключений, которые конечно хотелось бы понять. Но чисто по опыту могу заметить что "explain to me" звучит намного привычнее чем "explain me", которую я скорее всего никогда не встречал в совершенно любых источниках.

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Dormouse559 » 2014-06-03, 7:49

LifeDeath wrote:Is the line "I'd like to know an opinion of native-speakers" ungrammatical?
Yes, it is. However, saying "the opinion" or "opinions" or "the opinions" makes it sound better. And there is no hyphen in "native speaker"; it's just an adjective and a noun, like "small apple" or "good friend".

LifeDeath wrote:Why can't I say it that way?
I don't know why, but it sounds really wrong all the same.

LifeDeath wrote:In other situations like that, should I also say it using " 's"?
Yes, I think so.
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Re: Please explain me.

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-06-03, 9:58

So I think that I can use "whether" as good as "if". I used "if" but you suggesteg me to use "whether" as alternative possible option in that case. So, I've been thinking about it for a long time and I aslo was trying to find anything on Russian websites about that. But I found nothing. Sometimes I met some people saying that there's no difference between them. Sometimes it's really hard to find an imformation you need by searching some websites, because they have really less worthy information about that. Having said that, I really want you to explain to me: what is the defference between "if" and "whether"? Maybe there's some situations when one options sounds bad despite being used, but in another case sounds really good. Please, answer me what you think about it.

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Lada » 2014-06-03, 10:35

LifeDeath wrote:So, I've been thinking about it for a long time and I aslo was trying to find anything on Russian websites about that. But I found nothing.

I would recommend to search in English only, to use Google, not Yandex and you'll be amazed how many answers you can find. I typed "difference between if and whether" and received tons of links :)

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-06-03, 10:36

I'll try! Thanks!

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Dormouse559 » 2014-06-03, 18:53

LifeDeath wrote:So, I think that I can use "whether" as good as as a synonym to / interchangeably with "if". I used "if" but you suggested me to that I use "whether" as a possible alternative possible option in that case. So, I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I also was trying to find anything on Russian websites about that. But I found nothing. Sometimes I met some people saying that there's no difference between them. Sometimes it's really hard to find an the information you need by searching some websites, because they have really much/a lot less worthy useful (?) information about that. Having said that, I really want you to explain to me: what is the difference between "if" and "whether"? Maybe there's some situations when one options sounds bad despite being used, but in another other cases when it sounds really good. Please, answer tell me what you think about it.
In this case, "whether" and "if" are interchangeable, but that isn't always true. This site explains the differences well. They say not to use "if" after prepositions, which would change my correction to "native speakers' opinions on if whether it's possible". I tend to agree with them, but for some reason, your sentence doesn't sound too bad with "if". Admittedly, it sounds better with "whether". If you follow their instructions, you shouldn't go wrong on "if" versus "whether".
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Re: I want to know.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-07, 19:53

Hi. It's me again. Want to ask you somewhat. There's a phrase: "But now you want to best of me". I didn't quite understand how it uses. Rather I didn't understand the structure of "want to best of". For example i know the structure: "I want to (verb) smth" and I want (noun) of (noun)" - something like this. Maybe the word "best" is a verb, but why there's "of" after "best". There're another phrases from the same song: "You don't want me to yourself", "I'll for fill your needs" Can you explain it to me?

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Re: I want to know.

Postby linguoboy » 2014-06-07, 21:34

Perceptor wrote:Hi. It's me again. Want to ask you somewhatthing. There's a phrase: "But now you want to best of me".

That's not English. Sure you didn't mishear "But now you want the best of me"?
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Re: I want to know.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-07, 22:11

Oh sorry, it was a wrong text. There's no phrase "you want to best of me" there's "the" instead of "to".
I was misinformed :(
http://www.jooov.net/text/171268501/Vag ... Lisa.htmls - the text.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7visFnK57E - the song.
But what can you say about this phrase: "You don't want me to yourself".
Does it mean: "You don't want that i'll be your" or something like this or no? Is it correctly?

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Re: Please explain me.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-11, 21:39

If it don't complicate you can you similarly explain to me the phrase: "Let your soul take you where you long to be" not a translation but this method to do an adverb instead of a verb. (Where you want to be for a long time, for example)

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Re: I want to know.

Postby Dormouse559 » 2014-06-11, 22:15

Perceptor wrote:Oh sorry, it was an incorrect wrong text. There's no phrase "you want to best of me". There's "the" instead of "to".
I was misinformed :(
http://www.jooov.net/text/171268501/Vag ... Lisa.htmls - the text.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7visFnK57E - the song.
But what can you say about this phrase: "You don't want me to yourself"?
Does it mean: "You don't want that i'll me to be yours" or something like this or no? Is it correctly?
"You don't want me to yourself" means that the person (you) doesn't mind "sharing" the singer with other people. Does that make sense?

Perceptor wrote:If it doesn't complicate things, you can you similarly also explain to me the phrase: "Let your soul take you where you long to be"? Not a translation but this method to do of using an adverb instead of a verb. (Where you want to be for a long time, for example)
There is nothing special about that sentence. "To long" is a somewhat poetic verb meaning "to desire greatly". (To use it with a noun, say "long for" [I long for friendship.])
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Re: Please explain to me.

Postby Perceptor » 2014-06-20, 0:50

Can you explain the difference between the words: "forever" and "forevermore"?


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