• "thing out" verb

    From alexander koryagin@2:5020/400 to All on Fri Jul 6 22:01:02 2018
    From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

    Hi, all!

    In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" I read:

    -----Beginning of the citation-----
    "Here," he said. "We go on through here. The entrance is concealed."
    Harry did not ask how Dumbledore knew. He had never seen a wizard
    work things out like this, simply by looking and touching; but Harry had
    long since learned that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of
    ineptitude than expertise.
    -----The end of the citation-----

    It seems that "things out" is a verb and it has the similar meaning to "looks".

    But where on Earth Rowling has found such a verb "to thing out"? ;)

    Bye, all!
    Alexander Koryagin

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  • From alexander koryagin@2:5020/400 to Dallas Hinton on Fri Jul 6 22:01:02 2018
    From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

    Hi, Dallas Hinton!
    I read your message from 21.04.2014 21:22

    ak>> -----Beginning of the citation-----
    ak>> "Here," he said. "We go on through here. The entrance is
    ak>> concealed." Harry did not ask how Dumbledore knew. He
    ak>> had never seen a wizard work things out like this, simply
    ak>> by looking and touching; but Harry had long since learned
    ak>> that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of
    ak>> ineptitude than expertise. -----The end of the citation-----
    DH>
    ak>> It seems that "things out" is a verb and it has the similar
    ak>> meaning to "looks".
    DH>
    DH> Actually, the verb is "work", an infinitive with the "to" left
    DH> off.

    Ah, I forgot that I had already asked a similar question when I wrote a message "Some news from Harry." Well, well, I hope I will not ask it for
    the third time. ;-) The verbs of feeling and infinitives.

    Bye, Dallas!
    Alexander Koryagin
    fido7.english-tutor 2014
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  • From alexander koryagin@2:5020/400 to Ardith Hinton on Fri Jul 6 22:01:02 2018
    From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@erec.ru>

    F2EP
    Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
    on Wednesday, 23 of April, I read your message to alexander koryagin
    about ""thing out" verb"

    -----Beginning of the citation-----
    "Here," he said. "We go on through here. The entrance is concealed."
    Harry did not ask how Dumbledore knew. He had never seen a wizard work
    things out like this, simply by looking and touching; but Harry had long
    since learned that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of ineptitude than expertise.
    -----The end of the citation-----

    Yes, expertise is often taken for granted because the expert makes whatever s/he is doing *look* so easy. Harry is smart enough to realize his mentor takes things into account which he may not have noticed... [chuckle].

    I read the rule on this account: "after 'let' and 'make' we use bare infinitive."

    It seems that "things out" is a verb and it has the similar
    meaning to "looks".

    As I imagine you've worked out by now:
    * "work" is a verb here -- yes, in the infinitive form

    The trouble for me was the absence of "to" before the infinitive "work".

    <skipped>
    I am reminded of how, as a student of French, I sweated blood over ordinary everyday words which had numerous definitions. OTOH I can
    use some polysyllabic Latin-based word in E_T & my Russian friends
    don't miss a beat. Chances are they've studied Latin... or if not
    they will see only one or two definitions when they look up the
    word. There, in a nutshell, is why I have difficulty with the idea
    that a small or severely limited vocabulary makes a language easier
    to learn. In daily life I must make distinctions like this:

    M. Sally Forth (i.e. a cartoon character whose name is a pun, if
    you think about it) is working at the gym.

    N. I understood she had some paid employment, but didn't know what
    her job was. Is she a receptionist, a cleaning woman, Ms. Fix-It,
    or what...?

    ...

    M. Sally Forth is working out at the gym because she is hoping to
    work off the extra weight she gained during the Christmas season.

    N. Ah. Sally isn't getting paid $$$ for her work... she is paying
    for the privilege of using the equipment which the gym has to offer
    & which she doesn't have at home. Now we are into quite a different scenario. :-)

    It is especially confusing when you translate some text aloud, to the listeners, and suddenly you realize that the text means somthing quite different. ;-) But does "Sally is working at the gym" sound poorly because it allowes multiple nterpretations? IMHO we must avoid such sentences.

    [...If a person barks at people he lives as a dog, too]
    Bye Ardith!
    Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
    fido7.english-tutor 2014



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