Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[rice07]

Hi

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2009/06/21/2003446751

In the forth paragragh of the text in a newspaper entitled 'All in a day's work', an english expression, 'instead of say', makes me confused, because, in my opinion, 'instead of saying' would be correct in that case.

Would it be possible like another example 'kind of', used when you are explaining something and want to avoid giving details, quite commonly immediately followed by a verb in spoken American English?

e.g. I kind of made it look like the post office had lost his letter.

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely
rice

[CP]

It's another way of saying "for example," commonly used. Often it is set off by commas:

They hire us instead of, say, a delivery company.
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