more dialogues~~~

[joychow1985]

1.A:That was a great movie. I must've seen it a dozen times by now and I still love it.

B:Yeah. Can that Humphrey Bogart act, or can he act?

Why B agreed with A by the underlined sentence?

2.A:Can I borrow ur bike? I'm late 4 class.

B:U could if it didn't have a flat.

Why use "flat" here? Does it mean the bike is broken?

3.A:Is that artical hard 2 understand?

B:Hard? That's putting it mildly!

How can I understand the underlined saying?

4.A:I've got a splitting headache and I'm freezing cold. I must be coming down with sth..

��

How can I understand the underlined sentence?

That's all~~~Thank u all sooooooo much!!!

[teag1rl]

Hi Joychow.

I'm afraid I'm not clever enough to explain what number 1 means. B is basically saying Humphrey Bogart is a good actor.

2 flat in this instance means a flat tyre also known as a puncture.

3 'thats putting it mildy' agrees that yes article two is hard to understand, B probably thought it was bl**dy impossible which is another way of saying it's hard to understand but is less mild.

4 'I must be coming down with something' means I must be getting an illness.

Hope they haven't confused you-especially number 3 as I didn't really know how to explain that.

[joychow1985]

hi teag1rl: so nice to meet u again~~~ ^ ^

thank u 4 ur patient explanations which really make me clearer about the sayings~~~

so NO.3 means "Hard" is not strong enough to decribe how hard the artical is?

[andy-hughes]

Hello again - nice to hear from you!

1. The phrase B uses is a speech pattern common in English speaking, but a little hard to understand if you haven't geown up with it. What B does is say that Humphrey Bogart is a goo adctor by asking a rehotical question - one that does not need a reply, and emphasising it by saying it twice. It is just a speech pattern - often used by teenagers and young people, it is confusing, but that is what it means.

2. The 'flat' in this case is a shortened version of 'flat tyre', so the bike is not actuallly broken, but it can't be ridden until the tyre is replaced.

3. Again, as in 1., this is a use of irony. Saying "That's putting it mildly!" with the exclamation mark to emphasise the sentence means that the speaker is actually saying the opposite - it was actually very hard to undersstand. This use of 'opposites' to emphasise meaning are again common in modern English speech, and again, difficult to grasp if you are not used to them.

4. The 'sth' is an abbreviation for 'something' - it's not a common abbreviation, it would be used in a text message, rather than written English. The phrase 'coming down with something' means that the speaker feels they are in the process of catching and developing a cold or virus, as yet undeveloped, but the symptoms usually unclude fedeling unwell. The 'coming down' infers that the infection may develop in the next few days.

Hope this helps - come back if you have any more.

A x

[andy-hughes]

Sorry, I should check my typing, I'm in danger of confusing you even more!

The second sentence should read What B is saying is that Humphrey Bogart is a good actor by asking a rhetorical question ....

[teag1rl]

Your answers made so much more sense andy-hughes. you are very wise indeed. I fear I may just confuse you more Joychow, but I am happy to try to help :o)!

[joychow1985]

hi~~~andy-hughes:also so pleased to c u again~~~I really don't know how to thank u more in English~~~^ ^

ur detailed explanations have made me realize that in Chinese we have the expressions like NO.1 and NO.3 as well~~~so, I think i've more or less completely understood the sentences~~~

by the way, what do u mean by "Ax"??? ^ ^

[teag1rl]

I think Andy gave you a kiss Joy.

A (his initial) and x -means kiss

[joychow1985]

teag1rl~~~oh, i c~~~thanks~~~it's an interesting expression~~~ i really enjoy learning English~~~

[teag1rl]

You're very good at it judging by your posts Joychow- we do have some weird phrases which I struggle to explain having spoken it all my life!

[joychow1985]

teag1rl: does ur name equal 2 teagirl?^ ^

so, do u like tea? have u tasted Chinese tea???

[teag1rl]

Yeah, it's teagirl, but I use a one because I have done for ages, must've signed up to something ages ago, and there was already a teagirl so I changed my 'i' to a one. Yes, I like tea, but there is nothing interesting behind my name-just wracking my brain to come up with a user name one day, so was looking around me and stapler sounded stupid so teag1rl was born!

[joychow1985]

teag1rl: i think it's a creative user name~~~^ ^

i was so stupid to put 1985 in my user name~~~u know it's my birth year by which others can know my age easily~~~