Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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Member Since

August 6, 2004

Total number of comments

22

Total number of votes received

79

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Latest Comments

Wiener Coffee

  • August 6, 2004, 12:43pm

All countries do that. "The Unites States" in French is "Les Etats Unis". The UK is "L'Angleterre". "Germany" in French is "L'Allemagne" while Germans call it "Deutchland". Switzerland in French is "La Suisse". Mosow in French is "Moscou" and it's actually "Moskva" in Russian. Kopenhagen is actually something like "København". "Holland" in French is "Les Pays Bas", the locals there -- "les Hollandais", for which the English is "Dutch". Who knows why? Just because, I guess. A bunch of historical accidents.

Why everyone laughed, I'm not sure; it depends on how this particular kind of drink is actually called -- there'd be nothing out of the ordinary if it were in fact "Weiner coffee", after all, we have "consommé" and "hors d'oeuvres" -- even in English. Btw, "weiner" is also slang for "penis".

Usage of “envy”

  • August 6, 2004, 11:53am

And finally, I apologize to "blah" -- contrary to what I said, he did understand the situation and was going in the right direction; I was actually looking at Jun-Dai's message when commenting the first time. He errs in thinking that "begrudge" and "envy" are identical; they are not. You do "begrudge" something to someone; but with "envy" you can only either feel envy toward someone (a person), or regard with envy something (a thing or event): you can think of these envy1 and envy2 as if they were two different words -- which, semantically, they are -- whose spellings happen to coincide. Like homonyms, I guess.

Usage of “envy”

  • August 6, 2004, 11:38am

Other correct alternatives:

"I don't envy the probable consequences you'll have to deal with."

"I don't envy David's future frustration."

Usage of “envy”

  • August 6, 2004, 11:25am

OK, here is the probably the solution to the conundrum: the verb "to envy" allows of two meanings (I quote from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000. -- http://www.bartleby.com/61/89/E0168900.html)

TRANSITIVE VERB:
Inflected forms: en·vied, en·vy·ing, en·vies
1. To feel envy toward. 2. To regard with envy.
-------------------------------------------------------

It then becomes clear that in Vindibul's examples the same word is used in both senses simultaneously, which can hardly be correct. Iow, in "I do not envy David the frustration he'll experience", the "I don't envy David" part requires the first meaning (I feel envy toward David -- well, I actually do not in that case, but that doesn't matter), whereas the "I don't envy the frustration" part -- the second (I regard something -- in this case "experience" -- with envy.)

In Vindibul's examples both meanings have been collapsed into a single word: that's probably why they don't sound right -- just like the phrase "I run fast and a grocery store" doesn't sound right, although when taken separately, both "I run fast" and "I run a grocery store" are fine.

One thing I'm sure of -- I've never seen such a use of the verb "envy" in print. So, even if it is, as you say, correct but obsolete, it must be REALLY obsolete, like maybe going back to Shakespeare or something. It's not used this way today, that's for sure; whether it had ever been used like this, I cannot say.

Usage of “envy”

  • August 6, 2004, 11:24am

OK, here is the probably the solution to the conundrum: the verb "to envy" allows of two meanings (I quote from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000. -- http://www.bartleby.com/61/89/E0168900.html)

TRANSITIVE VERB:
Inflected forms: en·vied, en·vy·ing, en·vies
1. To feel envy toward. 2. To regard with envy.
-------------------------------------------------------

It then becomes clear that in Vindibul's examples the same word is used in both senses simultaneously, which can hardly be correct. Iow, in "I do not envy David the frustration he'll experience", the "I don't envy David" part requires the first meaning (I feel envy toward David -- well, I actually do not in that case, but that doesn't matter), whereas the "I don't envy the frustration" part -- the second (I regard something -- in this case "experience" -- with envy.)

In Vindibul's examples both meanings have been collapsed into a single word: that's probably why they don't sound right -- just like the phrase "I run fast and a grocery store" doesn't sound right, although when taken separately, both "I run fast" and "I run a grocery store" are fine.

One thing I'm sure of -- I've never seen such a use of the verb "envy" in print. So, even if it is, as you say, correct but obsolete, it must be REALLY

Usage of “envy”

  • August 6, 2004, 9:45am

Now, to be more authoritative, I quote from a dictionary:

"A woman does not envy a man for his fighting courage, nor a man a woman for her beauty. --Collier."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=envy

Of course, according to your views it should have been ""A woman does not envy a man his fighting courage, nor a man a woman her beauty." But it's not, so that's that. It simply grates on the ear -- though I'm not sure how to formulate the rule. It simply requires a preposition when used this way. And it's rarely used even like that, mostly it's either "I envy him" or "I envy something". Maybe it's different cases? "I envy him" is dative, "I envy his fate" is accusative? Meaning it's not both at once? I'm not sure.

Usage of “envy”

  • August 6, 2004, 9:21am

No. Sorry, you're wrong. You can envy someone, not something. Hmm... wait a sec... well, you can actually say, "I envy your success". But not "I envy David his success". All right, I don't know how to express the rule here, but you get the gist of it, I hope. Either/or, I guess.

"To envy" is not grammatically identical to "to begrudge" -- it would be correct to say, "I dont' begrudge David his success", but to use "envy" here, you'd have to say something "I don't envy David because of his success".

Resume, resumé, or résumé?

  • August 6, 2004, 8:45am

No more foreign, I meant.

Resume, resumé, or résumé?

  • August 6, 2004, 8:44am

The word is French. The original spelling is "résumé", and this is the preferred spelling in English as well. However, since no English keyboard has a key with "é" on it (I type it via Alt-130 now) it has become accepted to simply say "resume". "Resumé" is not here not there -- if you know how to achieve the accent-aigue, then type the word correctly with both Es accented, if not, well, then use the un-accented version. The plural is "résumés" (or "resumes", depending on how you prefer to deal with the accents.) It is so both in English and in French.

The term "CV" is used too, quite a bit. In fact, it may be preferred because it's no less foreign than "resume", while being shorter and having no accents :-) ...

Pawshop

  • August 6, 2004, 8:35am

Yes, a pawnshop is a commercial establishment where you can get a bit of cash quick by pledging something portable as a security; it's a place where you can get this kind of quick loan really. If you don't pay back in time, you forefeit the piece and the pawnbroker will sell it to recuperate the loss. It is also known as "lombard" or "lombard-house".