Bunch
What does it mean by "get lost in all this mess" in this dialogue? http://postfiles13.naver.net/20141124_60/bunch5017_1416772174582SwkLB_JPEG/whatdoesitmean.JPG?type=w2 Please drag the above link in the browser to see a four-frame comic strip. "Yer gonna get lost in all this mess, eh?" A strange man who wears glasses says this to a woman with long hair who lies down. What does it mean? Does it have a sexual meaning? His line and the situation together are confusion to me. Could you please paraphrase the sentence for me to understand properly? I know this phrase "get lost in a maze", this makes sense to me. But "mess" I don't understand. Also, gramatically, My dictionary writes the word "Mess" is a countable noun, right? So a plural noun is supposed to follow "all" if the noun is countable. Shouldn't it be "all this messes"? Please help me. Thanks in advance.
Nov 23, 2014 8:40 PM
Answers · 4
2
I'm not sure what's going on in the cartoon (and I'm not sure that I want to!) but the phrase makes sense. 'Mess' is just another word for something which is confused, disorderly and untidy. If your bedroom is extremely untidy, someone could joke that you could 'get lost in all that mess'. As for the grammar, I'm not sure why you think that 'all' needs to be followed by a countable noun. Of course you can use 'all' with uncountables .. all that money, all that whisky, all that noise.... Those sound fine, don't they?
November 23, 2014
1
SuKi's answer is good and applies to your basic question. I have just one thing to add. You can say "get lost in all this mess" as she explains. That would mean there is one mess to be careful of. You can also say " get lost in all these messes" if there are multiple messes. In your phrase, the "all this mess" makes sense. The other might be used in a situation like, "that company is badly managed. Don't get lost in all their messes."
November 23, 2014
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!