Quotations and Literature Forum

you native english speakers have no idea about this orgasm-like feeling.

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"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
Voltaire

I had to look up what a "phrasal verb" was - now I have just realised how hard it must be. We didn't have to "learn" them as a figure of speech, to us they just come naturally and we automatically know the different usages.

Congratulations Tonyukuk - enjoy the feeling!

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The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
e e cummings (1894 - 1962)

those who "invented" English had much free time, it seems (:

to a Türk, "add up" sounds like "adding another brick to the upside of the wall, to increase its height". how your ancestors linked "add up" to "make sense, seem reasonable", really curious (: perhaps, a good topic for my doctorate thesis

i usually avoid using them, but when i use, i use like a boss

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"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
Voltaire

Possibly because, before calculators and Excel made number work easier, we had to add up massive columns of figures, especially for bookkeeping and accounting. You started at the bottom and worked your way up (and often lost count and had to start again) first the units, then carry over and do the tens etc etc until you finally got the correct total.

Then used for agreeing to someone's answer/suggestion to solve a general problem so "adds up (to correct answer)"

Must admit I loved Excel and don't miss doing maths the hard way!!

Work "out" (a problem)
Write "out" (an answer)

= possibly originated with maths - doing a formula/logic step by step until you get to the end

Now you've got me looking them all up!

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The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
e e cummings (1894 - 1962)

aha, really interesting explanations.

and i'm glad that i caused at least one native english speaker to suffer the same pain

_________________
"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
Voltaire