He feeeeeeels the hindi/urdu language the way I feeeeeeel the English language. And that is what gets me high sometimes.
This wise old man once told me that there's a difference between "thaamna" and "pakadna". Wow. I never really noticed. But then, I never really thought about it in hindi/urdu. For me, they were pretty much the same.
But judging by the the fact that this is being written about in my "which is it" series, you'd have guessed by now, that though the difference between the words may be a hairline fracture, the line is solid.
He went on to elaborate, "Pakda us cheez ko jaata hai jo haat se nikal ke jaa rahi ho. Jaati hui cheez ko pakda jaata hai. Kisi cheez ko thaama tab jaata hai jab uske jaane ke aasaar na hon. Thaama jaata hai - passionately, pyar se, emotion se. Pakda jaata hai zaroorat se..."
mwah! mwah! kya baat hai! mai fida ho gayi. I understood more clearly when I translated in my head - "to catch vs. to hold"
Showing posts with label which is it. Show all posts
Showing posts with label which is it. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Say vs. Tell
"I'm tired", I said. "What does my watch say? Isn't it after midnight? What do you have to say to that?"
"Now I'll say you goodnight.", he said.
"You can't tell the difference between 'say' and 'tell'", I told him.
"Is there a difference?", he said. "Of course!", I told him.
To the IT professional, the best way of explaining the difference between 'say' and 'tell' is that 'say' is SOURCE oriented and 'tell' is SINK oriented. Words say and said are usually used when the focus is on the speaker. Its taken for granted that there is someone hearing the speech. Sometimes the audience is implied from the context. Sometimes the presence/absence/person of the audience is not as important as the speaker. The words tell and told are used when the focus is on the audience. The audience is explicitly mentioned.
If you still have difficulty telling which one goes where, try not using the verbs at all. Let me re-phrase the above conversation:
"I'm tired", I exclaimed. "What's the time? Isn't it after midnight? What do you think we should do?"
"I think we should bid each other goodnight", he suggested.
"You can't differentiate between 'say' and 'tell'", I announced.
"Is there a difference?", he asked. "Of course!", I answered.
I think I will say my prayers now and wish you good-night.
Check out this link for more confusion:
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/sayandtell01.html
Check out how accurate you are here:
http://unamsanantoniolab.com/eng/troublesomeverbs/saytell.htm
"Now I'll say you goodnight.", he said.
"You can't tell the difference between 'say' and 'tell'", I told him.
"Is there a difference?", he said. "Of course!", I told him.
To the IT professional, the best way of explaining the difference between 'say' and 'tell' is that 'say' is SOURCE oriented and 'tell' is SINK oriented. Words say and said are usually used when the focus is on the speaker. Its taken for granted that there is someone hearing the speech. Sometimes the audience is implied from the context. Sometimes the presence/absence/person of the audience is not as important as the speaker. The words tell and told are used when the focus is on the audience. The audience is explicitly mentioned.
If you still have difficulty telling which one goes where, try not using the verbs at all. Let me re-phrase the above conversation:
"I'm tired", I exclaimed. "What's the time? Isn't it after midnight? What do you think we should do?"
"I think we should bid each other goodnight", he suggested.
"You can't differentiate between 'say' and 'tell'", I announced.
"Is there a difference?", he asked. "Of course!", I answered.
I think I will say my prayers now and wish you good-night.
Check out this link for more confusion:
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/sayandtell01.html
Check out how accurate you are here:
http://unamsanantoniolab.com/eng/troublesomeverbs/saytell.htm
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