Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[kerstin]

can I say *to hurl bombs* and *to lob stones*?


She warned her son to *take heed*.
heed -serious attention
Is this phrase commonly used ?
Can I say "Take heed on that person ."as to describes "Pay attention to that person."?

You just learned that you talent run more to *dog-walking*.=Your talent has left a lot to be improved.?

thanks

[CP]

1. "can I say *to hurl bombs* and *to lob stones*?"

Both "hurl" and "lob" mean to throw, but usually "hurl" means to throw hard, and "lob" means to throw softly, or toss. If you throw a bomb, it has to be pretty light before you can hurl it. A hand grenade is just a hand-held bomb, and one does hurl grenades, but something heavy is more likely to be tossed or lobbed. An airplane drops bombs; it doesn't hurl or lob them.

You can hurl or lob or toss stones, all depending on how you throw them. Tossing, by the way, usually means throwing underhand (start with your hand down, arm back), but lobbing could be underhand or overhand. Hurling is definitely done overhand.

2. "She warned her son to *take heed*. heed -serious attention
Is this phrase commonly used ?
Can I say "Take heed on that person ."as to describes "Pay attention to that person."? "

More likely: "Take heed of that person / that person's example," meaning pay attention and get the right lesson from it.

3. "You just learned that you talent run more to *dog-walking*.=Your talent has left a lot to be improved.? "

Yes, I would say so. If you learn that your talents run more to dog walking, that means that your talents are more suited to dog walking than to anything difficult or important. (Of course, dog walking is valuable and important in its way, but it isn't exactly curing cancer . . . .)
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