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About translating the Danish “I have tried it before” - for native English speakers.
I went to an eye doctor recently and the nurse put some drops in my eyes to
dilate my pupils. Before she did it she said it was going to sting a bit. My reply in Danish
was literally “Yes, I have tried it before”(=I know what it feels like because it’s been done to me before). This is something about Danish that English speakers will find odd. In Danish “to try” can mean something like “this has happened to me/I have experienced this before”. So it would be natural to say in Danish things like “I have never tried breaking my leg”(=It has never happened to me that I broke my leg).
So my question is, what would be a natural way to express in English that I have had drops put in my eyes before (and thus know that it stings)?
Are the following natural?:
1. “Yes, it’s been done to me before.”
2. “Yes, I have experienced it before.”
3. “Yes, I’ve had it done to me before.” (I’m unsure if “had it done” means I told someone to do it to me”.)
Thanks for your help!
٢٦ أكتوبر ٢٠١٨
8
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What do you normally call a specific variety of apple? - for native English speakers
What do you normally call a specific variety of apple? The botanical word is “cultivar”, but I’m not sure if it’s a specialised word or it’s what people colloquially call it. With variety I mean for instance Golden Delicious or Jonagold.
Thanks for your help!
٢٣ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
7
0
About “skittish” - for native English speakers
I know the meaning of "skittish" when used about animals , but have so far only encountered it used about people in a novel from 1965. I wanted to check if “skittish” is still used about people with a meaning along the lines of “not very serious and with ideas and feelings that keep changing”.
Thanks for your help!
٢١ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
8
1
"smush" - for native English speakers
Is "smush" (meaning crush or smash) a word you ever use or come across?
I write down unfamiliar words when I encounter then, but often it takes a while before I get around to practicing them (so that I can make them part of my active vocabulary) and in this case I don't remember where I encountered "smush". It seems pretty rare since it's not in Merriam-Webster.
But it does exist:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/smush
١٢ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
14
0
‘the road is a sluice of squishy mud’ - for native English speakers.
Oxford dictionary has the following sentence below as an example sentence when you look up the word “squishy”:
‘the road is a sluice of squishy mud’
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/squishy
I just wanted to hear if this use of “sluice” sounds natural to native speakers, because as a non-native speaker I don’t find the image natural. Why a sluice? Where are the sluice gates in the road? I can imagine that a sluice (not that I see many sluices where I live) emptied of water is pretty muddy and perhaps that’s all there is to this image in terms of trying to make sense of it.
I found the article from where the sentence has been taken and it has to do with off-road driving, so perhaps the road is literally a sluice. You don’t have to help me understand that article. I just wanted to know if the sentence would make sense immediately to a native speaker.
Thanks for your help!
١٠ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
16
1
"You’re making it into too big a problem" ... - for native English speakers.
Are the two sentences below natural? I suppose North Americans would use “deal” instead of “problem”.
1. You’re making it into too big a problem.
2. You’re making too big a problem out of it.
٧ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
6
0
Spool vs reel – for native English speakers (or very advanced non-natives)
Does anyone know the difference between a spool and a reel? I got the impression they were synonyms, but in cave-diving, for instance, they are not quite the same (I discovered this through Google - I don’t know anything about cave-diving).
Thanks for your help!
٢ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
15
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Name for heating element - for native US/UK speakers
What do you call, in your respective country, one of the flat round heating elements that you see on the electric range in the picture below?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_stove#/media/File:Electric_stove.jpg
Thanks for your help!
١ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
16
1
Pronunciation of “lugubrious” - for native English speakers.
How would you pronounce “lugubrious”? Actually it's only the vowel in the "lu" part I'm unsure of. Is it a /ʊ/ like in “put” or a longer vowel, /uː/, as in Lucy, or is it a schwa?
Most dictionaries I have checked have /lʊˈɡuːbrɪəs/ or /luːˈɡuː.bri.əs/ as pronunciation, but when I listen to audios (including on Forvo) it often sounds to me like it’s pronounced /ləˈɡuːbɹi.əs/, that is, the “lu” is pronounced with a schwa.
Thanks for your help!
٢٩ أغسطس ٢٠١٨
14
0
Name of a type of lock in English - for native English speakers
What do you call the type of lock in the pictures below? You only use a key to unlock the door. That’s the advantage of it. When you close the door it automatically locks. That’s the disadvantage of it – in case you forgot to take the keys with you.
Thanks for your help!
https://lavpris-laase.dk/media/cache/fb_image_thumb/product-images/68/77/5201.jpg
Attached to door, but the locking mechanism is temporarily disabled:
https://handyman.dk/handyman/tips-og-tricks/montering-af-kasselaas-smaeklaas/
٢٥ أغسطس ٢٠١٨
20
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