Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stevenukd]

Dear Teachers,

1.I�m sure you will have experienced arrogant students, students who nit-pick.
-What does �nit-pick� mean here?

2.Life is too short to take seriously.
-�take seriously� here means �to be absolutely serious�, right?

3.Does �to top it all off� mean �to finish it all�?
4.� I�ve got a handache / legache.
-I�ve got a pain in my hand / in my leg.
-Which is more natural?

5.No men loves you much more than me.
6.You�ll see that I love you more than anything in this world.
-Are 5 & 6 natural?

Thanks a lot to Teachers,

Stevenukd

[lotus]

Hi stevenukd,

1.I�m sure you will have experienced arrogant students, students who nit-pick.
-What does �nit-pick� mean here?
a. picking on every little detail
b. choosy

2.Life is too short to take seriously.
-�take seriously� here means �to be absolutely serious�, right?
Perhaps. It could also mean be solemn, be humorless or be grave.
The sentence can also mean lighten up, don't be so tense, have a sense of humor, or it's just not that important in the grand scheme of things.

3.Does �to top it all off� mean �to finish it all�?
It can. It can also mean "on top of it all" - which means wrapping things up with the extras. It can also have an ironic tone. When we reach the final breath of our paragraph, we may find ourselves stating a revelation or realization. "To top it all off, I ended up being the best man!"

4.� I�ve got a handache / legache.
-I�ve got a pain in my hand / in my leg.
-Which is more natural?
The second sentence is more natural. We rarely use handache and legache. We use headache a lot!

5.No men loves you much more than me.
No man loves you more than I (do).

6.You�ll see that I love you more than anything in this world.
-Are 5 & 6 natural?
Six is perfect - you're a hopeless romantic!


--lotus

[bud]

1. To nit-pick is to point out tiny flaws/mistakes/problems. They are flaws that most people would not even notice.

2. Yes, in a way. It means to consider something as too important.

3. Hmm... did that come from me? If so, I meant it as making a very good thing even better. Think of a chocolate sundae. It starts with the ice cream, then you add pineapple sauce, marshmallow sauce, and hot fudge. At the very top, to top it all of, you add some chopped nuts and a cherry or two. The sundae is great without the chopped nuts and cherries, but it's even better with them!

4. The second pair is natural, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone say handache or legache.

5. No man... (A typo, I think.) But you're conceding in that sentence that at least one man loves her a little more than you do. Is that what you really are trying to say? If you are trying to say that you love her more that any other man, the delete "much:" ... loves you more than me.

It's not too natural with "much" solely because of the logic. It's very natural without it.

6. Yes, very natural!

[bud]

Nice answers, Lotus! They weren't there yet when I started my reply.

[LucentShade]

"To top it all off" can also mean "add something that makes things worse." For instance:

This morning, the power went out and my alarm clock didn't work. I didn't have time to eat breakfast, my car took a long time to start, traffic was horrible, and to top it all off, my boss gave me another big assignment at work.

For #4, the most natural way to say those things would be "My hand hurts" or "My leg hurts." Headache, stomachache, and backache are words, but for any other part of the body, people would say "My ---- hurt(s)" in casual conversation, as in "My eyes hurt" or "My knee hurts." It's implicit that the direct object of "hurt" is "me."

For #1, this expression comes from the word nit, which refers to the eggs of head lice. These eggs are very small, so to "pick" them (remove them from someone's hair) means looking at tiny things, so by extension the expression evolved into an idiom about looking for small details. But let me tell you, nits and lice aren't insignificant when they're in your hair