Thursday December 13, 2007
‘Ice tea’ or ‘iced tea’?
COULD you please answer the following questions: 1) This soft drink bottle label (see picture right) reads “Lipton Ice Tea”. Should it not read “Lipton Iced Tea”?
2) It used to be that the word “invite” was used as a verb while “invitation” was the noun. But now the word “invite” is often used as a noun as well, e.g. “We will send you the invite to the show.” Is this correct? – Muhamad Faizal, Kuala Lumpur
1) A drink with ice in it is usually referred to as “iced tea/coffee”, etc. But “ice tea/coffee” is also used as an alternative expression.
It is interesting that among the British tea companies that make fruity soft drinks with “tea” in its name (they may not even contain tea), Lipton and Tetley call theirs “ice tea”, but Twinings calls its drink “iced tea”.
These “ice” or “iced” teas do not contain ice when we buy them, but presumably we are supposed to drink them chilled or with ice added.
2) “An invite” is an informal way of saying “an invitation”, just like “spend” is an informal way of saying “expenditure”.
“Invite” has been used as a noun since 1659, but perhaps has recently become a ‘cool’ noun to some and an irritating one to others.
“Spend” has been used as a noun since 1688 to mean the action of spending money or the amount of money spent (e.g. in the phrase “on the spend”), but it’s only since 1976 that it has been commonly used instead of the more formal “expenditure”.
Being very polite
I AM quite confused about using “could you”, “can you”, “would you” and “will you”.
One day, I asked my school teacher about it and she told me there was no difference at all. She said if we used “would you” and “could you” to ask questions, that would show better manners.
After what she said, I wondered whether she was right.
What about sentences like “I could be a doctor one day” and “I can be a doctor one day”? The same applies to “would” and “will”. Can you explain these to me? – A Form 3 student
Your teacher is right in saying that “could you” and “would you” are more polite ways of asking someone to do something for you than “can you” and “will you”. Let me give you examples of a request phrased in four different ways:
1. Can you please help me carry this suitcase? (polite, informal)
2. Will you please help me carry this suitcase? (polite)
3. Could you please help me carry this suitcase? (very polite)
4. Would you please help me carry this suitcase? (very polite)
“Will you” can also be used when ordering someone/some people to do something, for example, a teacher may say: “Will you stop talking and listen to me!”
And “would you” can be used when making a polite offer, e.g. “Would you like some ice cream?”
However, “I can be a doctor one day.” and “I could be a doctor one day.” differ from each other not because one is more polite than the other, but because “can” suggests a greater degree of possibility than “could”.
“I can be a doctor one day.” means “It is possible that I’ll be a doctor one day.” while “I could be a doctor one day.” means “Who knows, maybe I’ll be a doctor one day.”
You can express an intention by saying “I will be a doctor one day.” But “would” in this kind of sentence is only used as a past form of “will” in reported speech, e.g. “He said he would be a doctor one day.”
Understanding Avril Lavigne
WHEN I listen to When You’re Gone by Avril Lavigne, I don’t understand some of the lyrics. Can you explain these to me?
1. And the bed where you lie is made up on your side (what does “is made up on your side” mean?)
2. When you’re gone, the face I came to know is missing too (what does “the face I came to know” mean? Whose face is that? And the “missing” here means “lost” or “rindu”?)
3. We were made for each other, out here forever (“out here forever”? Where is it? ) – Jason Tee, Seremban
1. When someone gets up in the morning, he usually “makes up” his bed, i.e. prepares it to be used again at night, by fluffing up the pillows, folding the blanket, etc. In a double bed shared by a couple, if the bed is said by one of them to be “made up on your side”, it means that the other person has gone, because his side of the bed has not been slept on.
2. “The face I came to know” must be the beloved one’s face. And “missing” here just means “not there”.
3. I can only guess that “here” in “out here forever” means this earth.
Doubts about test paper
THE following questions appeared in a Year 5 test paper recently.
The old man is sitting in ___ arm chair near the door.
A a
B an
C the
D some
The answer given is B “an”.
(I feel the answer can be C as well).
Choose the word that has the opposite meaning as the word underlined:
My mother is busy preparing dinner in the kitchen.
A responsible
B working
C resting
D relax
The answer given is D “relax”.
(Is this correct? I feel it should be free, idle or unemployed.) – Sheila
The answer to the first question can only be “the” (definite article) if there is a previous reference to that armchair, or there is only one armchair near the door, indicated by a picture.
If the sentence stands by itself, the indefinite article “an” should be used, because there may be other armchairs near the door and the old man is sitting in only one of them.
As for the second question, I can understand your uneasiness about the given answer. When we ask a pupil to choose a word that has an opposite meaning to another word, both words should be from the same word class (part of speech). The word “busy” here is an adjective, whereas the two words among the choices provided that have more or less opposite meanings to “busy”, i.e. “resting” and “relax”, are verbs.
Among your suggestions, “free” should be all right. “Idle” would be all right, too, as long as the pupils understand that it can mean “not doing anything” and doesn’t only mean “lazy”. But “unemployed” nowadays usually means “without a paying job”.
Go slow or go fast
IF a race is a contest of speed between runners, then why were the organisers asking us to slow down?
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The sign (above) was probably meant for the visitors to the park, where the race was being held. But I think “Caution! Race in progress” would have been a better choice of words than asking everyone to slow down.
What do you think? – Pueh Tian
I agree with you. Reading a signboard that says “Go Slow!” before “Race In Progress!” does send contradictory messages to a motorist. “Caution! Race in progress”, as you suggested, would be much clearer.
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