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

Thanks to the link for phrasal verbs. It scares me how little I know about my own language. We are taught nothing about the structure of English at school. Makes learning other languages harder as well!

I know what you mean Yarreau - it's often the little words that make all the difference in English.

Here's an example :

When Dad came home he was astonished to see Alec sitting on a horse, writing something. " What on earth are you doing there ?" he asked.
"Well, the teacher told us to write an essay on our favourite animal. That's why I'm here and that's why Susie's sitting in the goldfish bowl !"

Yes yes, that's just it.

on = on top of
on = about

English has so many words, why do we have to have two (or more) meanings for some of them?

I once had a wrangle with a language pedant who was railing against people saying ~Far be it from me to say...~

Thats just a meaningless jumble of words, she said, It should be ~Far be it *for* me to say...~!!!

Ill accept that only one is Standard English, but how is For less meaningless than From?

It's like night and day. The first sentence is totally un-understandable, while the second one is crystal clear.

>> ~Far be it from me to say...~

Is correct because the 'from' goes with the 'far'..."It is far from me" meaning "It is far (away) from me".

"It is far for me" doesn't make sense. Though I guess at a stretch it could mean "It's a long way for me (to go)"

I am also pretty sure that "far be it from me" is correct, and "far be it for me" is a corrupted version.

It's a bit along the lines of people saying, "I could care less" when they really mean to say, "I couldn't care less."

I've always thought of "Far be it from me..." as meaning "I hope it will continue to be far away from me..." Just to make it completely clear, 'far away' would mean the same as 'very different'. So the full, expanded version would be, "This is very different from the kind of things I normally do, and I hope it will continue to be very different to the kind of things I normally do," [but]...
"Far be it from me..." is quicker.

Also, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, misuse of phrasal verbs is precisely the sort of thing up with which I will not put!

thank you Robert Thompson

{{Also, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, misuse of phrasal verbs is precisely the sort of thing up with which I will not put!}}-- why?

Youre missing the point with Far be it for/from, maybe

The Standard English is For. Many people say From - but this is regarded as a (lets say) Not Right. Its an possible to argue that From is more sensible, but ultimately its irrelevant because...well...language doesnt work that way. Everything its arbitrary: why do we call a four legged animal that says Woof a Dog and one that says Meow a Cat rather than vice versa? Because we do!

Now, OK...we *do* agree some patterns amongst ourselves, But pronoun use in phrasal verbs is an area in which patterns are really hard to discern. You just have to learn them the way you do German noun genders.

You've got it about face there Ed. "Far be it from me..." is the 'correct' version, "far be it for me..." is the mangled version.

Apologies. You are correct.

Actually - I had never heard "far be it FOR me" until I read it in this conversation...