Know your English

[Tolamu]

Welcome to the forum, your majesty!

While I'm in this thread, I'm interested in some expressions which stumped me till now.
Once I've even wrote to 'Know your English' in the Hindu but they never replied/published it.

Suppose the principal detained a student. The student pleaded, 'Let me go'.
If the principal is detaining more than one student, one on behalf of the others too pleaded, 'Let us go' to set them free.
Is it correct? Doesn't it mean that they are pleading the principal to go together with them?

Then what should be the correct expression for 'set us free'?

[jayakris]

"Allow us to go" is the only way to say it without ambiguity, I believe. The word "let" has multiple meanings, so it wouldn't work, as you felt.

[Atithee]

Please (don't forget with a principal) let my class go. Or my classmates, or my classmates and me. If you are the leader type a la Moses, you could say, "Let my people go."

[jayakris]

^^^ I think Tolamu wanted to keep "us" in the sentence. Otherwise he has all kinds of ways to say it. There is no way to unambiguously say it with "let us".

[Tolamu]

^^^ I think Tolamu wanted to keep "us" in the sentence. Otherwise he has all kinds of ways to say it. There is no way to unambiguously say it with "let us".

If I drop my favorite 'us' and say 'Let we go', the English may be wrong but the principal will surely understand

[prasen9]

Given the context, the principal should interpret "Let us go" basically to mean that the students want to go. All language interpretation is context-dependent. Sanskrit is perhaps the least context-dependent (lease ambiguous) language. Maybe we should develop computer languages using Sanskrit as a base

[Saniapower]

Let them go

[Varma]

Let them go

As in, "Let them go; you can detain me"?

- Var,a

[Saniapower]

ok then, let everyone go

[prasen9]

This does not belong here exactly. But, the Modi thread is combustible. Not wanting to stoke those fires again, I am moving this comment here because sarcasm has to do with language --- sort of, I guess. One person complained about my sarcastic writing style there. I accept that it is over the top and essentially I do troll and get into a conflict from time to time. I do understand that some serious people are offended by that. And, I rendered my apology. Having said all that (so as not to start another high-intensity flame war here again), here goes. There is a study that found out that sarcasm is a catalyst for creativity. Harvard/Columbia study on sarcasm as a catalyst of conflict *and* creativity So, there you go. Science says. My objective is to make everyone here creative! Okay, guys? Chill out! Enjoy your time here. Here's to more sarcastic trolling!

[prashanthm]

^^ Prasen, since I'm the one you're probably referring to as the 'serious people' being offended by your sarcastic creativity..., I felt dutiful to respond
I'm a fun loving and methodical person, that is all....

Sarcasm probably works when used lightly and infrequently, just my opinion.....

My major exception was to your comment on calling some of the people here (and, I am not even one of them because I didn't post anything about Modi being a great guy, except for asking alternatives in one post) fanboys of Modi...

And my last statement in that thread was to Chill!

So, chill again......
happy trolling on less contentious topics.....



Note: I always enjoyed your sarcastic remarks on other topics in other threads that didn't involve name-calling of members of this forum...

[prasen9]

All right, all right. I accept. I should not be chauvinistic. I should not only mention the fanboys. Fanboys and fangirls of Modi. Happy? Actually, fans of Modi would include both boys and girls, melikes! But, I think I trolled a bit better than that. Fans is not as insulting. I may have said something like "Modi-is-God brigade" or something more fire-cracking like that Got to keep up my reputation. High standards, man! Anyway, glad to have trolled you into replying to this thread The more eyeballs we get here, the more money Dhruv makes. Happy to be of some use

[suresh]

[jayakris]

How many of you know that the word "felicitate" is used only by Indians? I mean, the word is unknown to Americans and the British, it appears. I came to know of it only today, as I used the word in a faculty meeting in connection with celebrating 50 years of teaching by a colleague of mine. Blank stares from my Americans friends (and an Australian too). We got into a discussion and some went googling to make sure that I was using a correct word. I had no idea that this word (which apparently existed in English once, but is considered archaic) is in use pretty much only in India! So it seems. I have not researched much into it. Any of you know more?

[Sin Hombre]

Continental Europeans use it (felicitations, felicitaciones) a lot and I can definitely recall using it while living there and not receiving blank stares.

That said, I never knew it was archaic in Anglo-American English. I will try it with some Dutch and Swiss tomorrow and report