Going back to the second or third post about using a level for plumb lines.
Level is both a flat horizontal plane and a name of a tool.

Sort of like hammer is used to drive nails, but because it also had the claw, the hammer can be used to pull nails out, much like pry-bar.

English is a weird language: things like "park in driveway and drive on underground highway", or setting "OFF the alarm".

I remember when I first started dating my now wife.
We lived an apartment complex on 2nd floor.
After going shopping, she asked me to get the groceries down.
I took them out of the Trailblazer and placed them on the ground.
She was as confused about the results as I was about her request.
I honestly thought she wanted me to get them out of the Trailblazer because she needed to take the SUV somewhere.

Mr. Gilman. Yes I do care to participate but, I can not help myself when the opportunity rises to make a smart ass remark or possibly make someone laugh if they find it funny.

One of the reasons why I make a point of saying "please turn up or down the temperature." Instead of "turn up or down the a/c".

For some, if you say "turn up the a/c" that means to make it colder, while others would think it means make it warmer.

KOT

Exactly.

See, highfigh? You don't have to quote the whole post to comment on it.

To avoid confusion i say the temperature i want it at. 90% of the time this works fine because its at the office or my house or a hotel room ive been in for a while and now our cars have digital settings instead of just a slider so i know whats comfortable for me.

If everyone else is fine at 74 i need it at 68. So wherever i am i sweat or everyone else freezes. In the winter i usually leave the heat off when no one else is home or in the car with me.

How about a question "do you mind if I xyz"?
The answer is almost always "yes" when they really mean "no, I don't mind".

Or how about "can I ask you a question?"
"yes" is an answer to that 1 question.
People should ask if they can ask 2 questions.

That's always an interesting situation since they just did what they asked you if the could.

Perhaps they meant "may" but then they still went ahead and did it.

My usual response to either is "you just did".


Some folks will ask "do you have the time?" - my response "for what?".

If they ask "do you know the time?" - my response "yes".

My wife just rolls her eyes.

Teenage smartassery at its most irritating. Personally, I've given up most of that, but yeah, I remember being thirteen.


You're lucky you don't get accused of worse in this thread!

Meanwhile, wait for the next time you call something the wrong thing and end up losing a sale, wasting time explaining three times, or whatever; because it will happen.

I'll bet you lose more sales from people rolling their eyes and/or falling asleep during your hours long dissertation

English is my second language here as well, me and Mario come from the same place ;) . When I came to US ( twenty something years ago ), i was trying to learn English by watching American movies with the subtitles on, I quickly learned that two most common sentences used in movies were " I love You " and " F....You " . When out on a date it worked just fine, but trying to get a job was a completely different story.... .
For a very long time I had major problems with proper pronunciation, a lot of words sounded alike. I will never forget my first service call when client had an issue with a relatively inexpensive receiver that kept shutting down and going to " protect mode ", upon my arrival I have learned that he had a pair of exotic and very low IMPEDANCE speakers , so I have connected the dots and quickly replied to the client ( with a heavy Polish accent ) : " You have an IMPOTENCE problem " ...

My Russian GF, although she does have pretty good command of English, doesn't understand many idioms and colloquialisms. I told her the other day that some guy I knew kicked the bucket. She looked matter of fact at me and asked "why he kick this bucket?"

And she calls a knee a K-nee (same with knife). I keep trying to tell her the k is silent.

When she wants me to turn on a light, she asks me "Can you make it more light" or when she is hot "Can you make it more cold".

My friends know by now that they should formulate their questions carefully as I am going to answer the questions asked.

I certainly don't deal with customers, strangers, etc that way.

I can't give you a good answer, or maybe any, without the context for your lame comment.

You can be a real nobk. (remember, the k is silent)

Talk to an ethnic German about getting their hair cut and they'll refer to "getting them cut" as a group. Hard g at the end of words, different syntax and phrasing- they all makes their way into the languages when people have to learn a new one and many languages don't use any silent letters.