this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
330 points (97.7% liked)
Linguistics Humor
1049 readers
1 users here now
Do you like languages and linguistics ? Here is for having fun about it
Share this community: [!linguistics_humor@sh.itjust.works](/c/linguistics_humor@sh.itjust.works)
Serious Linguistics community: !linguistics@mander.xyz
Rules:
- 1- Stay on Topic
Not about Linguistics, language, ways of communications - 2- No Racism/Violence
- 3- No Public Shaming
Shaming someone that could be identifiable/recognizable - 4- Avoid spam and duplicates
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah with english the answer is usually "both are correct but this way sounds better."
Basically how english works... go with what sounds right, and if it isn't right the linguists will eventually declare to be right anyway.
And don't feel bad, I once met an asian woman that said "an Irish guy that works at the restaurant gave me a list of common english expressions, but some of them don't look right and I'm not sure if he was just joking around, can you take a look?"
First thing on the list was:
I'm tired -> "I've been laying around flicking the bean all day."
So I had to explain what "flicking the bean" actually meant to a woman I just met that was just learning English. Thanks, Ireland!
Man, what kind of asshole does that to a lady who is just learning a language?
That's a good one, damn. Flick the bean off, what a great phrase.