Being a fan of a dubstep music, I often see comments like this: “Looooove this tune! The bass drop is so sick!…” To my understanding, sick has negative connotation. Merriam-Webster defines this word as “affected with a disease or disorder”, either physically or mentally. However, the phrase above looks rather positive (even if followed with … Read more
In Germany, a shop made commercials with the slogan “Come in and found out.” There were many jokes about the meaning of the slogan in Germany. Often it was interpreted as Komm rein und finde wieder raus (“Come in, and find the way out again”). Find out is translated to German as herausfinden. The German … Read more
A friend of mine watches BBC Top Gear. He sometimes hears the guys say “That would be that”. What does that mean? Answer I don’t know the context, but generally, this and similar phrases (e.g. “that’s that”) are generally used to mean, roughly, “The issue/task/event/discussion is done.” It is generally used somewhat ironically, in cases … Read more
I’m trying to understand the English in this article (bolding mine): “I think it was a genius action from Lula da Silva” said Mujica in an interview with the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo, when he argued it was a “gross mistake” of the international community to isolate Ahmadinejad. “The more you fence in … Read more
On YouTube, there’s that famous joke the Dalai Lama didn’t understand — and neither did I. It even made headlines in my part of the world, and on some of the sites I frequent, yet nobody ever bothered to explain it. I am at a loss. I suppose pretty much every non-native speaker will have trouble … Read more
