freecounterpoint: I'm starting to like this guy.

Monday, September 20, 2010

C'mon, Tecs! We can't deport everyone that has a funny name.
Meanwhile, the racists make new gains.

Tecumseh said...: Methinks Rubio has ways to go.; 9/20/2010 2:20 PM
Mr roT said...: Tecs, I know that people that sneak into the country can't be expected to speak or write English intelligibly, but this really is beyond the pale.

Most certainly this is worth a VCP after your Safire-like pontifications regarding the Queen's English.

Now, allow me to get to the point.

If one says or writes that someone has a ways to go, it means that that someone is lacking something significant.

If, on the other hand, one says or writes that someone will go a long way, it means that that someone has a bright future.

But, if you split the difference, a temptation that is certainly hard to refudiate, and writes or says that someone has ways to go, it is rather unclear whether you intend that that someone is woefully inadequate to a task or that that someone is quite apt.

May I put forward the idea that your English has a ways to go?; 9/20/2010 2:32 PM
Tecumseh said...: You may. But it won't buy you even a warm bucket of spit, let alone a magnum of VCP.

Methinks anyone with an ounce of common sense will understand what I meant to say.

English is simply a way to communicate thoughts, and, in this regard, I have no way to go but up. I'll let you deconstruct what I meant to say by that, Herr Foucault.; 9/20/2010 2:46 PM

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