Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Hiroaki Sone]

Hi.

[1] You could stand a little rest.

[2] You could stand a glass of super cold wine.

[3] You could stand to work out a bit more.

I know all the above examples mean "to benefit from," but I just don't see how "stand" is used to mean "to benefit from." I can easily understand how "stand" is used to mean "to be able to torerate," as "stand" gives you a notion of "holding tight, not caving in" --- standing through the thing that the subject should go through, but how "stand" is used to mean "to benefit from." The same thing goes to "stand" meaning "to treat" as in "to stand you icecream." How come "stand you icecream" comes to mean "treat you to icecream"?

Any and all your help would be appreciated.

Hiro

Sendai, Japan
_________________
JH7JHH/ First Class ham radio operator. N9COW in U.S.

[hitori2k6]

Hiroaki,

Hello. Your first three examples are correct, although, ex #2
sounds strange...

As far as "stand" meaning "to benefit from", "you could stand
a little rest", it is a correct usage of the word, but more of a
different meaning.

Typically, in that kind of sentence we would just use the
word "use". "You could use a little rest", "You could use
a glass of water".

Unfortunately, you just have to look at it as one of English's
strange imperfections.

As far as "stand" meaning "to treat someone", that is probably
either a British-English expression or an out-dated American-English
expression.
I can tell you as a native English speaking person, I've NEVER heard
anyone use "stand" such as "stand you ice cream".

So from a daily usage standpoint, I'd forget about "stand" meaning
"to treat someone to something". Undoubtedly, many Americans
won't know what you mean.

I'm sorry I can't be more help than this, its just the way English
is. Gambatte ne!

[KazAV]

Another way to use stand is to mean to put up with something or not:

e.g. I can stand being with him for two hours but no more (I can put up with being with him for two hours but no longer than that).

I can't stand tomatoes! (I don't like tomatoes).

[Hiroaki Sone]

[hitori2k6]

Hiro-san,

Yes, I also found "stand" -to treat someone (or a group) to
food, drink, entertainment-. at the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary website.

In spite of that, I still would not use it that way.

There are many other ways that "stand" is used.

"I won't stand for that".
"The defendant is expected to stand trial".
"Don't stand the box on its end".
"The witness should take the stand".

I hope this helps

[ClarissaMach]

May be I'm not the right person to explain things here, for I'm not a native English speaker (I'm from Brazil). But I guess I understood the problem.

My point is: "stand" can be used in this meaning: "be able to pay for somebody a drink/meal/etc". For example:

"I hope someday you will stand me a drink when you suceed".

or

"He keeps telling me he has no money to stand me a meal at that restaurant".

As we are talking about things you're suppose to pay for, I think we should use "stand" with words like "drink" or "meal", instead of "glass" and "food". This is why "You could stand a glass of super cold wine" can't be considered right.

Am I going through the right way?


Clarissa Alves Machado.

[hitori2k6]

Clarissa,

I perfectly understand Hiroake's question...

I'm not really saying that this usage of "stand" is wrong or incorrect.
It is listed in the dictionary as a proper usage of the word.

What I'm saying is that it is a usage that is very UNCOMMON in
American English. And if he were to say it to an American, in all
probability, they would NOT understand his meaning.

It is just a meaning of "stand" that is not used in American English.

Hitori2k6

[ClarissaMach]

Oh, I understand, and I must agree with you. I believe "Stand me a drink" is chiefly used in Britain, not in the USA.