bud
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 2111
Location: New Jersey, US
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 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Navid,
A: There is no difference in meaning, but the grammar is slightly different.
"I'm afraid" could be a sentence by itself. It does not say what you are afraid of, although that might be made clear by the context.
"I'm afraid of" cannot be a sentence by itself. The 'of' needs to be followed by "something." Thus, it could be more specific than the first. Ex: I'm afraid of snakes... I'm afraid that I failed the test.
B: This involves those troublesome English prepositions. Occasionally, a change in one of those little words completely chages the meaning of a phrase.
Hang out - To pass the time with others. Instead of going to the movies, you and a couple of friends may decide to just hang out for the evening. Maybe you'll gather at someone's house and watch TV a little, joke around, gossip, maybe grab a bite to eat, whatever. Maybe a better description is to spend unplanned, unstructured time with others. You are just enjoying one another's company.
Hang on - Lots of meanings:
hang on = wait - Hang on for a sec (=second=few moments). I'll be right back.
hang on = hold - Hang on to this document. You'll need it when you do your income taxes next year.
hang something on somebody = blame - They're hanging the fourth quarter loss on Bill.
hang on something = give attention to - Bob gave a great speech. The audience hung on every word.
hang on something = depend on - Alice said she'd pick me up by 5:00. I'm hanging on that because I need to be at the airport by 6:00.
There could be other meanings, too.
Hope that helps. |
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