ToBE #13 : How are they related?

This is a story of three couples.
First, there was H1 who was married to W1. (H for Husband, W for Wife)
They had children H1W1.Boy and H1W1.Girl.

Also, there was H2 who was married to W2.
They had children H2W2.Boy and H2W2.Girl.

At this point, there is no relationship between the adults other than that of husband and wife.
Q : How are H1W1.Boy and H2W2.Boy related?
A : They are not related as their parents are complete strangers to each other.

For some unknown reason, the two couples split and H1 married W2. So far, they have no children.
At this point,
Q : How are H1W1.Boy and H2W2.Boy related?
A : They are now step-brothers. They do not have any common parent. However, a biological parent of H1W1.Boy is married to a biological parent of H2W2.Boy. Likewise, H1W1.Girl and H2W2.Girl are step-sisters.

Eventually, H1 and W2 had children, H1W2.Boy and H1W2.Girl.
Q1 : How is H1W2.Girl related to H1W1.Girl?
A : They are not sisters, because their mothers are different. They have one common parent, H1. They are half-sisters.

Q2 : How is H1W2.Girl related to H2W2.Girl?
A : Again, they are half-sisters.

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ToBE #12 : Confusing words

A ToBE subscriber raised the issue of confusion caused by some verbs that also double up as nouns. My thoughts went to an e-mail I had received ages back. This mail of 2000 makes hilarious reading. It also includes words that have more than one meaning and the mail was titled, "Esperanto freaks are going to love this".

Reasons Why The English Language Is Hard To Learn:

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let me know if you need help understanding any of the above.
Item 9: Americans use 'dove', instead of 'dived', as the past tense of 'dive'.

ToBE #11 : Do we have leave on 14th January?

Do we have leave on 14th January?
How often have we heard questions like the above? My assumption is, quite often.
Does it sound odd? No, it doesn't, because we are used to it.
Is there something wrong about it? Yes, there is.
What?

Well, let us see in the perspective of the three words : leave, holiday, vacation.

Leave
This is something that is asked for - and granted or refused by your manager. When you want to be absent on a working day, you request leave.

• I would like to take leave on Thursday for a family occasion.

• Danny is on leave today.

You can not be on leave when it is not a working day.

Holiday
Holiday is something declared for everyone. No one needs to apply for it.

• 1st of January is a holiday in our company.

• Republic Day is a public holiday.

Vacation
1. A period of overlapping holidays announced for a group of people. Typically,

• My kid's summer vacation (not summer leave) starts on 25th March.

2. A period of overlapping days of leave taken for purpose of leisure. Typically,

• Nachiket is going on a vacation next week.

(Exception:- The British say, "I will be on a holiday next week.")

ToBE #10 : Too little is too much

We have already seen (in ToBE #5) how placing a word in different locations in a sentence changes the meaning of the sentence. In this issue, we will see a small example of how changing the preceding words changes the meaning.

The word is : few.

Put simply, it means 'a small number'. Some linguists, however, distinguish between 'few' and 'a few'.

Few:
Few people attended the meeting.
Choices are few.
In this context, 'few' is taken to mean a small, negligible number or 'almost none'.

A few:
A few people attended the meeting.
There are a few pieces left in the box.
'A few' represents a small quantity, 'some'.

Quite a few:
Quite a few people in our company know Java.
There are quite a few South Indian restaurants in Mumbai.
'Quite a few' means a large number. Interestingly, though 'few' and 'lot' have opposite meanings, 'quite a few' and 'quite a lot of' almost mean the same. That explains the subject of this issue!

An interesting link for English learners at this Grammar and Vocabulary room.
This has some useful pointers to good English and unfortunately, some errors as well.

ToBE #9 : Kumble, the second person after Kapil Dev

October 2004's major news item for Indian cricket fans was "Kumble became the second Indian after Kapil Dev to take 400 wickets in test cricket". The statement begs the question, "Who was the first Indian after Kapil Dev to take 400 wickets?"

The answer is obviously not Kapil as we have already accounted for him and we are looking for the first person after him, since Kumble is the second. This exposes a flaw in the original statement. It should have been either of:

• Kumble became the first Indian after Kapil Dev to take 400 wickets in test cricket

• Kumble became the second Indian, after Kapil Dev, to take 400 wickets in test cricket

Adding the commas makes the difference and identifies Kapil Dev as the first person and Kumble as the second.