USAGE: hate = jealous (was: Re: YAPT: Dutch ij and ui)

Hey!

First, thank you for your pronounciation-related explanations!
And, with "glimpse" I meant "a quick look", just to clarify. I thought
this is what "glimpse" means? The decision which preposition you use
with which word can be pretty nasty as a learner of English. It's just
like in German, in that which case to use with transitive verbs ;)

From: "Tristan Mc Leay" <kesuari@...>
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: YAPT: Dutch ij and ui


> >>'Hate' is such a harsh word that I have no idea of what concept it
> >>expresses. Rather than letting a perfectly useable word go to waste,
I*
> >>have re-applied it as a euphamism for something that is normally
> >>expressed using words like 'jealous' or 'envious' but isn't quite
that.
> >>It's always clear what it means in person because it's said with a
happy
> >>tone of voice but English doesn't have written tones of voice...
Please
> >>do not feel offended, I wouldn't hate anyone I didn't like!
> >>
> >>*: I didn't do it consciously. I have no idea whether it's common or
if
> >>I invented it or something else, but I do it and it normally doesn't
> >>cause misunderstanding, so I keep doing it.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >I've been familiar with the usage for long as I can remember. I
figure it must
> >be pretty widespread.
> >
> >
>
> Relieving, I was getting a bit worried that people thought I might be
crazy.

English is my L2, and the teacher I had during the first 3 years
actually only dealt with grammar. It was quite a pain for me to learn
all the basic grammar stuff back in 1997! (I was 11 in 1997) At school,
we aren't taught practical, everyday English that much :( Actually, you
are trained to *write* good English, but you're not very much prepared
to be able to have everyday conversations. You somehow pick up the more
colloquial expressions rather from the internet or from songs than
learning them in school. E.g. Trebor wondered why I said "carer" instead
of "counselor" when he told that Etak was one of the counselors at the
camp he has been to during the holidays. Assuming "counselor" meant
"Betreuer", I had to look up the word for "Betreuer" in the dictionary.
"Carer" seemed to fit best. That's also why I wrote back, just to be
sure I understood him correctly. I learnt that a "counselor" is a
"Berater" or something like that. Trebor was curious if there could be
something like a dialect of English among learners IIRC. Plus, the books
schools use to have are mostly at least 20 years old. Our English book
(Green Line, Klett) was from 1987 or so, revised edition 1991.

-- Carsten

Replies