h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks! The example for „bear up“ was helpful! What about:

“She barged in with her stupid useless comments!”

Does that sentence make sense?

Yes, and can be quite true...

Cat

Thanks again for your help! Highly appreciated!!!

Maybe someone could give me some more help with phrasal verbs? That would be fine!

What does “to bow out” mean?

Is there a difference between “to butt in” and “to barge in”?

Is the following sentence correct?
“We camped out in the desert.”

Can you give me a sentence with “cast about”? I think I know what it means, but I don’t know how to use it in a sentence. Same with these two: “to club together”, “to chip in”.

What do “to change down” and “to change up” mean?


Thanks for your help in advance!

Okay let's have a go with these. I don't know all of them I have to admit. Where are you getting all of them from?

"to bow out": This means to stop doing something. "drop out" is another phrase used. It's usually used when you are doing something with a group of people, it could be going out for a curry, or entering a competition.

"Joe had to graciously bow out of the Doughtnut eating championships".

"to butt in" is generally used when you just suddenly enter into something, whilst "to barge in" means that you've completely take over whatever it is.
So...
"I was talking with Chris and Matt just had to butt in with a joke didn't he?"

"There's no need to barge in and start ordering everyone around!"

"We camped out in the desert" is completely correct. I think it's more of an American phrase than English definitely. In England we just "camp" or "go camping".
American: "We camped out in the woods and got lost"
English: "We went camping in the woods and got lost"

"to club together" is to group with other people to either pay or make something.
"We all clubbed together to give Rachel a surprise birthday present"

"to chip in" means to either put some money or time and effort into something.
"Yeah sure I'll chip in and buy the drinks"

They're roughly the same thing but "to chip in" is used more about one person in the group, whilst "club together" talks about the group as a whole.


"cast about" I can only think of one thing which might be it.
When you cast about for a solution you don't have any idea and you're just randomly looking around. You open yourself up to anything and everything and hope that a solution will spring out at you. Any sense?

"to change up" and "to change down"...I can only think of these in terms of gears or something. Could you be more explicit?

Kath

Thanks a lot for the explanations and examples!

I have those phrasal verbs out of a grammar book. I bought the book five years ago and it’s never been a help – I’ve never found what I was looking for. So I decided to read through it from page 1 to… let me see… page 486. I know that’s weird, but the book was pretty expensive, and the fact that it’s useless as a reference book forces me to find another solution. And the only solution I can think of is to read through it and see if it is of any avail.

They provide thousands of stupid word lists (in context with some grammar stuff), but they don’t explain those words, and they don’t give examples. This method is completely useless – the only thing one can do with those lists is looking all the words up. And the problem with those phrasal verbs is that I can’t find translations for them. Those lists are simply completely out of context… This is also why I can’t be more explicit about “to change down” and “to change up” cause there is no context. Stupid book.

Thanks for your help again!

- who got stuck on pg. 163

The only thing I can think of with "to change down" is with gears, you know in a car or on a bike.

"As I came to the hill I changed down to first"
"As I came over the hill summit I changed back up"

It could have something to do with "dress up" and "dress down"... Maybe not though... It's obviously not a very common phrase if no one's heard of it...

Cat

Thanks to both of you! Reading through those lists is pretty depressing, cause there are so many phrases I don’t know… glad to hear that at least some of those aren’t important!

How are you doing with the evil grammar book Katkodl? Or did you abandon it in the end in favour of more important things in life? Should this thread be revived? Or should I let it die a quiet death?

Kathryn (pretending to be the language thing)

I gave up on the grammar book. I also gave up learning French for the moment - it's a pity, but I don't have time for it.
I like this thread, but unfortunately I won't be able to participate regularly throughout the next months.

I forgeet which closing phrase is more formal, Bset regards or Best wishes.
Please tell me about the closing phrase of the letter, e-mail and etc.
Taamyu

For a formal letter or email, use "Yours Sincerely" (if you know the person's name) or "Yours Faithfully" (if you don't). You can use "Regards", but that's less formal.

"Best wishes" is only used in certain contexts, and probably best avoided for your letter

Thank you for your response, Joe,
Yes, I know about the very formal closing phrase, using "Sincerely" or "Fathfully".
What I really want know was that the differnces between "regards" and "wishes"
To me, it seems that "wishes" is more formal than "regards".
I really get confused with "regards" and "wishes"
So, you don't use "Best wishes" so often, don you?

Someone sometimes use "all the best". Could you tell me when I can use this phrase?

Also, Im very happy If you can tell me closing informal closing :
I know :
Yours,
Love,
Take Care... blah blah blah.
Cheers

Thank you
Taamyu

I can't think of a way of better explaining this. Anyone else got any ideas?

*bounces in*

Ahhhh my thread is resurrected! How wonderful and what a great question!

Okay...best wishes and regards...

Best wishes is most often used to someone you don't know very well but like. For example, if you were writing to your mother's old school friend who you knew and saw a lot when you were young but don't really talk to now and they are moving to Finland so you want to write...you would say Best wishes.

If you are writing to an aquaintance who you really don't know all that well and either don't know much about or don't particularly like, then you would use regards. You would also use regards if you wanted your reader to let someone else know you wrote and were thinking of them, but you don't know them well.

For example, if I was writing to Joe C, I would say "Give my regards to your mam". I don't know her well but I'd like to say something. If however I was writing to my ex-girlfriend I would say "Give my love to Jo" (her brother) because I know him quite well and like him a lot.

Informal endings... I'm including the ones you know already because they can be padded out...

(Lots of/With) Love (to you)
Yours (a slightly more "formal" informal ending)
Take care
(Hope to) Talk/See to you soon
I look forward to hearing from you
Thank you for your help
Hugs
Good luck (if you're writing for that sort of thing)
All the best (usually if you don't plan to write to them again, or they are about to start something big, eg move country)

Or of course you can just round off what you were saying and not write an end bit, just your name.

There are more but those are the ones that spring to mind.

Kat

Hi Kat,
What a supurb answer
Very very easy to understand. I'll write them down on my notebook
I sometimes use Regards, wishes without knowing the deep meaning.
So, I really would like to know the differences.

One more question.
Does "So long" mean that people write the person whom he/she won't see for long time like adieu in French ?

------------------
Turn to the subject
I'm now searching for one about British English pronounciation.
I understand that language is living thing. And pronounciation is very different in each area(you have your own accent) I KNOW.

But please tell me :
Do you pronounce [ofTn] or [of'n] for the word "often"?

Hope you'll tell me how you say it

So Long would be used if you were never going to see them again, or at least not for a very long time. It's usually used as a rather sad farewell.

The way I pronounce often changes depending who I am talking to.

Talking to friends I will say of'n. It's faster and more youthful.
Talking to my parents/in a debate/to myself I will say ofTn.

I speak a very precise form of English and so I "dumb it down" when I am around teenagers or around people who have a certain dialect who are likely to tease or dislike me because of my accent.

Kat,
for your reply to my intersts in English Pronunciation
I wish if I could do VOICE CHAT with you throught the internet
I'm sure if we can, I can definately brash up my horrible Japanese accesnt
Recently I teach kids and one woman(a friend of mine) English. As to kins whose age is from 4-6(2 classes/2 older boys and 3 pretty girls) at my friend's place where she has big space for doing lots of things together with for having a fun.
And I use the messenger with my friend to teach English conversation.
But as most of us have the same problem, her pronunciation is also very Japanese, I mean it's very hard for her to stop pronouncing with consonant And some intonation is very strange.
I'm very worried that my own speaking English is going back to what I spoke like her when I was a university student (even now, I've got Japanese accent. It doesn't matter because my British and American friends told me that my English was OK/fine not sure)
I do hope her accent effects me a lot

Well, I'll pop into here time to time to ask you questions on Engish

Kat,
for your reply to my queries on English Pronunciation
I wish I could do VOICE CHAT with you through the internet
I'm sure if we can, I could definitely do with brushing up my horrible Japanese accent rofl.
Recently I have been teaching kids and one woman(a friend of mine) English.


(As to kins whose age is from 4-6(2 classes/2 older boys and 3 pretty girls) at my friend's place where she has big space for doing lots of things together with for having a fun.)
I'm not entirely sure what this paragraph is saying.


And I use instant messenger with my friend to teach her English conversation.
But as most of us have the same problem her pronunciation is also very Japanese, I mean it's very hard for her to stop pronouncing with consonants and some intonation is very strange.
I'm very worried that my own spoken English is going back to when I spoke like her when I was a university student (even now, I've got Japanese accent. It doesn't matter because my British and American friends told me that my English was OK/fine laugh not sure)
I do hope her accent (doesn't?) affect(s) me a lot(much)

Well, I'll pop in here from time to time to ask you questions on English

*****
Just thought I would neaten that up so you could see. Do you feel that your written English has got better or worse as your spoken English has (so you believe) got worse?