Gio
The meaning of "long" in this context The farmer of the 1980s "would have longed" for a horse that worked harder and ate less, but would not have mentioned a tractor in his/her wish list. Would have LONGED? Boh? Grazie
Dec 3, 2014 3:31 PM
Answers · 8
2
Ah, here's another verb for you that doesn't look like a one! 'Long' can indeed be a verb. Here it means that the farmer would have ardently wished for such a horse. http://it.bab.la/dizionario/inglese-italiano/long-for The main problem here, though, is the date. Surely it's the 1890s? This is part of the classic marketing lesson, isn't it? The fact that customers don't always know what they want. It's very similar to the famous Henry Ford quote: 'If I'd asked people what they wanted, they'd have asked for a faster horse' That's also a good example of the third conditional in English. As you can see it's easy to combine Business Studies with English grammar.
December 3, 2014
1
"To long for (something)" means to want or desire something intensely. You can also use it with verbs. I long for a break from work. I long to go somewhere nice for a holiday. You'll see the definition here, as a verb (after the adjective/adverb/noun definitions): http://www.thefreedictionary.com/long
December 3, 2014
I found "boh" as an alternative spelling for "boo"... dunno... ♦︎ I guess a WTF isn't polite when someone is asking for help, maybe it isn't polite at all ;-) but above all in such an occasion!
December 3, 2014
Actually, I suspect that if the equivalent question had been written by a native English speaker, they would have written - somewhat more vulgarly - 'Would have longed? WTF? Not that I'd use the phrase personally, I hasten to add...
December 3, 2014
That's 'Boo!'
December 3, 2014
Show more
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!