Re: Meganet on Cryptogram again

From: Mok-Kong Shen (mok-kong.shen_at_t-online.de)
Date: 09/29/03 

Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 16:14:53 +0200

Mxsmanic wrote:
>
> pleyland@microsoft.com writes:
>
> > There you are on very safe ground. I'm as certain as makes no
> > difference that I wouldn't be able to get security clearance to work
> > for NSA.
>
> I don't understand this paragraph.

I suspect this to be another instance of confusion (cf. one
in another thread) caused by persons whose mother tongue
is not English. These may try to take over some expressions
from other languages through translating them 'directly'
and thus leading to a different sense or even nonsense.
Being a foreigner myself, I have occasionally such
experiences personally. I guess that he wanted to say
'absolutely certain'.

M. K. Shen

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Past Tenses in Western Europe
    ... I have noticed that IE languages generally ... Over time, emphatic expressions gradually crowd ... _interpreted_ as marking an aspectual distinction in English. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: French leave, Greek sex etc.
    ... there are similar expressions in several languages with the same ... saying goodbye to your host & hostess, you are taking English leave. ... Perhaps the Dutch can enlighten us on what they call a Dutch treat & ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Double negatives - humour
    ... In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is ... Quite - though not in Standard English, or, should I say, if you don't ... Some expressions, such as 'he doesn't know nobody' are ungrammatical ... 'He was not unhelpful' is not equivalent to 'He was helpful' ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: French leave, Greek sex etc.
    ... there are similar expressions in several languages with the same ... saying goodbye to your host & hostess, you are taking English leave. ... Perhaps the Dutch can enlighten us on what they call a Dutch treat & ... And sailing jargon has some "Flemish" expressions that might be relevant. ...
    (sci.lang)