[HPforGrownups] Re: Typos

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 24236

Bente13 at peoplepc.com wrote:

> Ah! So what you're saying is that even if Harry is saying the exact
> opposite of what it actually true, it's still right? Interesting! I
> guess my understanding of colloquial English still isn't what I
> thought it was.

A couple of examples which may help you get the "feel" (or may make it
worse, hey, who knows). It's sort of the situation where, say, my
husband would do something truly juvenile and I would say, "That was
real mature." Meaning the exact opposite. And the double-positive "Yeah,
right," or "Yeah, sure," said sarcastically, means a negative. Ex: Me to
best friend: "Come over and I'll cook dinner!" Best friend in reply (who
knows I can't cook): "Yeah, right. No problem." If she actually showed
up expecting dinner, I would be thunderstruck. (and she would have to be
very, very hungry). Next, my old boyfriend's favorite example, slightly
off color, the then-motto of the equestrian sector of the cadets at
Texas A&M University: "If you ain't Cav [cavalry], you ain't shit."
Which begs the interpretation, "so if you *are* Cav, you *are*....?"
which is best said softly around these big hunky military types. In
cases like these, the strict grammatical interpretation is often not the
correct one.

--Amanda, who loves to collect lines that are easily understood but are
grammatical mud, like the line from Bread's "Baby I'm A Want You":
"You're the only one I care enough to hurt about." ....you understand
it, but it doesn't SAY anything.


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