I hate to bitch but bitch I must
Bob Hall
rjhjr0 at gmail.com
Sat Oct 17 03:49:55 UTC 2009
On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 02:34:40AM +0000, Mark wrote:
> Actually, this has got very little to do with being a native English
> speaker or not. It's ere a matter of intonation (which, in writing, can
> only be conveyed to a certain degree, of course). 'Should' can certainly
> mean "Don't try that." As in:
>
> Will the ice hold me?
> Well, technically it should.
>
> (Meaning: it probably will, but I'm not overly confident.)
Actually, what's happening here is dropping part of a sentence. It's
common in English to shorten
Yea, it should work, but it doesn't.
to
Yea, it should work.
In order to catch the meaning, you have to be aware of context.
Contrary to the OP's claim, this shows a pretty good grasp of English
idiom. It's definitely not evidence that the man author is not a native
speaker of English.
On the other hand, it can be clarified so that the meaning is clear even
without context. If the OP really believes that the present wording is a
problem, other people have made suggestions on what to do about it.
More information about the freebsd-questions
mailing list