Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stevenukd]

Dear Teachers,

1.I offered to walk her home.
-�walk her home� means �walk home with her�, right?

2.�Hold on!� can also mean �Hold tight!�, right?
3.-Have you ever worn your T-shirts wrong way round?
-Have you ever got dressed back to the front?
-Are these natural?

4.The five years have been hard because we have battled with trying to please people. I have taken them up and down so many emotional rollercoasters.
-What do �I have taken them up and down� and �emontional rollercoasters� mean here?

5.Sometimes in life we must let go of the the ones we love.
-Why don�t we say �let the ones we love go� instead of �let go of the ones we love�?

6.She was still caught up in a jagged ends of a previous relationship.
-What does �caught up in a jagged ends� mean here?

Thanks a lot to Teachers,

Stevenukd

[bud]

1-2. Yes.

3. Well, I'd say they're possible, but not natural. (By the way, "... the wrong way around" would be needed). More natural: Have you ever put your t-shirt on backwards? or Have you ever worn your t-shirt backwards? or Have you ever put on your t-shirt backwards?

4. A rollercoaster goes up and down (as well as around sharp curves). The changes from up to down, etc., happen quickly. An emotional rollercoaster is a situation where an emotional state goes from one extreme to the other very quickly and often (happy to sad, hopeful to despairing, etc.). I'm not sure exactly what is meant by "I have taken them..." It could mean that "I' am responsible for the rollercoaster. It could mean that "I" have helped them deal with the rollercoaster. It could mean something else that I'm not thinking of.

5. You could say it as you propose. Many would naturally say it that way. I think it is a litte clearer, and thus better style, the first way, though. "Let go" is a phrasal verb, and one that is separable. But in this particular sentence, the separation is four words long. In my opinion, it sounds slightly odd separated by that much.

6. It means that some unresolved emotions remain. Maybe she still loves him in some ways, but not in others. Maybe she wonders if they could still "work things out." Maybe she totally hates him now, and is so bitter that it affects starting a new relationship. It's something along those lines.

(By the way, "jagged ends" would occur if you snapped something in half instead of cutting it - a stick, for example. If snapped, you are left with jagged ends; if cut, smooth ends. It is a metaphor meaning that the relationship did not end smoothly.)

[alexandra]

Hi Bud

About your ��jagged end`` point, that CD of Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, would it have the same meaning?

Thank you

[bud]

I'm not sure, Alexandra, but it sounds like something similar. The only information I could find is this review of the CD (it appears in some form on just about every link to the title):

http://www.answers.com/topic/jagged-little-pill

The reviewer believes that the CD is a purging of her bitter feelings over a bad business relationship with a record company executive.

So it could be a play on the common expression, "a bitter pill to swallow" (which is often shortened to "a bitter pill"). That refers to a very disappointing result or situation, one that was expected to be positive. A bitter pill tastes awful and so is unpleasant to swallow. A jagged pill would have rough edges and would be painful to swallow... It seems plausible to me, but it's her idea - not a common expression in itself.

Any other ideas out there?

[advoca]

Hi, Stevenukd,

Yes, you can say hold on to somebody who is clinging to a rock and is in danger of slipping, and it certainly means hold tight.

But you can also say to somebody on the telephone, �Hold on while I get a pencil.� (It means, please wait for a moment.)

But hold on there folks. Wait just a cotton-picking minute! There is another use for the phrase, hold on. It is one that has not been mentioned (and it does not seem to be mentioned in many dictionaries either). It is a colloquial use which literally means �stop for a moment.� It is used to interrupt someone when they are expounding something quite vehemently or in detail. You can use it when you want to interrupt what someone is saying, or insert a counter argument. In the north of England they often say �Whei up,� to mean hold on (or stop), just as if they were trying to stop a horse.

And may I suggest that there is a slight difference between walking someone home and walking home with someone. I might say to a pretty girl, �May I walk home with you?� and this means I want the pleasure of walking with her to her home. But I could say, �It is dangerous to be out late at night so I�ll walk you home.� That means I will accompany her in order to protect her.

In England it would be quite natural to say to somebody, �Hey! You�ve got your T-shirt on back to front. It�s the wrong way round.� This kind of comment is often used in connection with caps. Kids these days often wear their caps the wrong way round; back to front.

Finally, if I read that someone was �still caught up in a jagged ends of a previous relationship,� I would take that to mean that they had broken up with the person with whom they had had a relationship and the termination had been violent or at least unpleasant. It had left unhappy memories of the break up, or in other words, it has left jagged ends.

Finally, let�s have a look at the sentence, �Sometimes in life we must let go of the ones we love.� I would take that to be the sort of advice given to someone who is grieving for a deceased love one. Sometimes people find it had to accept the death of a loved one, and cling tightly to their memory. A woman might grieve for the death of her husband and continue mourning for a long time. You might say to her, �You must let go. Life must go on.� This means that she should accept the death, and start to live her life again. She should let go of the one she loves. It would not be appropriate to say, �Let the one you love go.�

I hope my comments (from an English perspective) are useful and helpful.