Today's American English question An easy one, this time, I hope. What is your assumption when someone says 'I feel sick'? Do you assume that they're nauseous and about to throw up? Or might they ha

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Today's American English question An easy one, this time, I hope. What is your assumption when someone says 'I feel sick'? Do you assume that they're nauseous and about to throw up? Or might they have a headache, flu, a fever, or any other ailment? Or put it another way.... if you had to draw a cartoon to illustrate the sentence 'I feel sick', what would you draw? Many thanks :) NB As you might have guessed, I'm trying to get my head around the extent of the difference between B.E. and A.E. with regard to this statement.

15 okt. 2017 14:24

Antwoorden · 15

Hi Su.ki, It really depends on the context. For me, "I feel sick" can range from I-have-a-fever, to I-am-going-to-throw-up-in-a-moment, to something more figurative i.e., Established context + I am sick/I feel sick. In other words, if somebody told me that they felt sick, I would ask them why if I didn't already understand the situation.

15 oktober 2017

It depends a lot on the context. It can be nauseous or other things. It can also be an emotional statement

15 oktober 2017

probably the first one, but I would ask a follow-up question, such as "what do you mean?" or "What's wrong?"!

15 oktober 2017

As has already been said, context makes all the difference. It's often best not to make any assumptions - that's why it is said "assume makes an ass of you and me"(ass-u-me) Short sentences frequently only make sense when used in context.

15 oktober 2017

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