Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 May 8

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May 8

Use of "often"

Can we use the adverb "often" at the end of a sentence?

Eg. She says that she comes here often. --59.182.39.120 (talk) 15:15, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes. "Do you come here often?" "Only in the mating season!" --TammyMoet (talk) 15:20, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Note that in such a sentence "often" is normally interpreted as modifying the last verb, so it's equivalent to "She says that she often comes here". If you mean it to modify the main verb, thus applying to the whole sentence, you would say "She often says that she comes here"). --Anonymous, 02:00 UTC, May 9, 2010.

"Of" or "Off"?

We need to the clear the streets of/off hawkers. 59.182.39.120 (talk) 15:16, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

I presume you're asking which is the correct word? In which case it depends on the sense. If you're saying that hawkers need to be removed from the streets, the correct word is "of". If you're saying that hawkers get dusty and dirty because they are attracting streets and they need us to remove them, then the correct word is "off"! --TammyMoet (talk) 15:22, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

In your initial construction,

"We need to clear the streets of hawkers."

would be correct, but an equally correct construction with the same meaning would be

"We need to clear hawkers off the streets."

You might also be amused by the triple ambiguity of "hawkers": doubtless it is here intended to refer to street traders rather than a variety of falconer, but the term also used to be current amongst English-speaking expatriots in Hong Kong and Singapore to describe those who (in public) noisily clear their throat and spit phlegm (the combined action being called "hawking") - in this sense it is something that Lee Kuan Yew might very well have said! 87.81.230.195 (talk) 15:52, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

They're not "expatriots". That could suggest they're actively conspiring to bring about the downfall of their home country. If they live abroad, they are expatriates. Big, big difference. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:55, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

You're quite correct, I had a senior moment (though of course they could be both). 87.81.230.195 (talk) 22:37, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

There's a temptation to try to make some kind of joke with "expectorates"... -- AnonMoos (talk) 07:01, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Coughing loudly would normally be called "hacking" (nothing to do with computers), unless they've made a portmanteau of "hacking" and "coughing". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:02, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

No, I'm also familiar with that term, but "hawking" was definitely the term and spelling used for the action I described (sounding sorta like "Hhchchaawiik - ptah!") in the mid-1960's when I lived there. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 22:37, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

"Hawking" in that sense is (or was) also current in the United States. In the 1960s I used to hear the act of expelling a glob of phlegm referred to a "hawking a loogie". Deor (talk) 22:57, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

I usually see it spelled as "hock a loogie". Where I am from, where we don't have the cot-caught merger, it's also pronounced this way ([ɑ] not [ɔ]). rʨanaɢ (talk) 23:01, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

See here. Deor (talk) 00:58, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

As in Mount Wannahockaloogie? +Angr 05:22, 9 May 2010 (UTC)