this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
333 points (97.7% liked)

Linguistics Humor

1070 readers
1 users here now

Do you like languages and linguistics ? Here is for having fun about it


Share this community: [[email protected]](/c/[email protected])


Serious Linguistics community: [email protected]


Rules:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I feel slightly offended. Because it's true.

(Alt text: "Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you're currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out.")

xkcd source

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I am a native speaker, and I do take my word choices very seriously - often to the point of pausing during conversations to find the exact phrasing which will convey the shade of meaning I am looking to convey. I wrote fiction for a while, and it was always extremely important to me to get phrasing right.

I agree with you completely. While I would interpret all of those phrases as equivalent (based on context) if they were to come from someone else, I would tend to use them in exactly the ways you suggest.