5 ms·
If you think two different words having different meanings is difficult, wait 'til you hear about contranyms! English is full of words like these, where context
by nulbyte 2y ago
If you think two different words having different meanings is difficult, wait 'til you hear about contranyms! English is full of words like these, where context is needed to understand the meaning.
If something is fast, it moves quickly or not at all. Cocktails can be garnished, but so can wages. Sales or trade of a product could be sanctioned by one country, but sanctioned by another.
I generally think it is a good thing to communicate clearly. Sometimes that means using words differently to explain something. Other times, that means using words the same way as others. I think this is a case of the latter.
Also, I think the idea of "native speaker" is a bit of a red flag. There are plenty of people that speak English from birth but are utterly unintelligible, and there are plenty of people that speak English as a second language who speak more clearly than those.
- JadeNB 2y agoSomething can be held fast, but I don't think it is usual English to say that something fixed is fast. Garnishment of wages is garnisheeing, though here I'll agree "garnishing" seems to be acceptable too.
- rout39574 2y agoSomething "made fast" is perfectly reasonable usage for tying it in place.
- benwills 2y agoI've heard "fast" as a contranym to "moving quickly," referenced as "to fast" or "fasting." ie: not eating at all. Edited to add: Sticking with the context of food, "fasting from food" contradicts someone being a "fast eater."
- riehwvfbk 2y ago"Fasten your seatbelt" doesn't usually mean "twirl it wildly above your head".
- matt-attack 2y agoWhen I'm at a restaurant and I don't see anything I like, I just order something "off the menu". When I'm at a restaurant and I like everyone I see, I order something "off the menu".
- balex 2y agoSo essentially you order off the menu based on your surroundings?
- scoot 2y agoThe first is "off-menu", and the second (for which I don't think you meant "everyone") is "from the menu". So, no...
- fshbbdssbbgdd 2y agoPeople really do say they “ordered something off the menu” when they found the item on the menu. I believe I could usually distinguish the two meanings if I heard a recording. If the item is not on the menu, the word “off” would be stressed.
- averageRoyalty 2y agoIn Australian english, "off the menu" is perfectly normal vernacular in non formal settings.
- krakrnews 2y agoI sanction this comment.
- thfuran 2y ago>wait 'til you hear about contranyms! English is full of words like these, where context is needed to understand the meaning. It is, unfortunately, possible for more than one thing to be bad at a time.
- BobaFloutist 2y agoSanction and nonplus are the most insane examples, because sometimes it's literally not possible to figure out from the context which of the two opposite meanings is intended.
- janalsncm 2y ago> Also, I think the idea of "native speaker" is a bit of a red flag I assume you mean “red herring”. Red flag just means a sign that something is wrong.