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Can ‘unless’ be correctly used in the ZERO conditional? Unless ice is kept between certain temperatures, it melts.
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Facefull, faceful, face-ful. Is this a word and what does it mean? To give someone verbal abuse? To have over eaten?
- Yes, but you got a passive in there. Might confuse some of yer studes?
- Never heard it. Related to ‘getting an earful’? The ‘abuse’ thing, sounds plausible; ‘in your face’, related to. It sounds like something that got coined in the last 100 years or so. You can modify what you like with affixes, as long as your listener understands. Slightly difficult for non-native speakers, though; it’s rare to meet someone who can do that appropriately.
Absolutely. Any logical operator useful in describing a general truth is valid.
It’s two words AFAIK; you could use it to describe someone who just took a cream pie in the face or has extensive acne (i.e. their face is completely covered with it), or someone who just got a large bosom intrusively presented at eye level or some other stimulus or object intrusively presented (e.g. snow, abuse, etc.).
Absolutely. Any logical operator useful in describing a general truth is valid.
It’s two words AFAIK; you could use it to describe someone who just took a cream pie in the face or has extensive acne (i.e. their face is completely covered with it), or someone who just got a large bosom intrusively presented at eye level or some other stimulus or object intrusively presented (e.g. snow, abuse, etc.).[/quote]
It seems both are the same in this case, but I think there’s a subtle difference between two words and one.
One word is a noun.
Two words is a modified noun.
See: Please don’t speak with your mouth full.
He spat out a mouthful of potatoes.
You might be able to cite substituting the first form into the second example, but if I were editing it I’d change it to the second.
You really couldn’t use the second form in the first example, though.
[quote=“the chief”]It seems both are the same in this case, but I think there’s a subtle difference between two words and one.
One word is a noun.
Two words is a modified noun.
See: Please don’t speak with your mouth full.
He spat out a mouthful of potatoes.
You might be able to cite substituting the first form into the second example, but if I were editing it I’d change it to the second.
You really couldn’t use the second form in the first example, though.[/quote]
For mouth full and mouthful I agree; it’s logical, and the latter is an established modified form. But I’m not sure there is an established modified form of faceful or facefull. I suspect there’s not. You could invent one by analogy to mouthful but it would be non-standard, I think.
In American English, according to Merriam Webster’s, you can have faceful:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-ful[2]
[quote]Main Entry: -ful
Function: noun suffix
: number or quantity that fills or would fill <roomful> [/quote]
In British English, according to Cambridge, you can have faceful:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=31569&dict=CALD
[quote]-ful (AMOUNT)
suffix
the amount of something needed to fill the stated container or place:
a spoonful of sugar
a mouthful of tea
a houseful of people[/quote]
In both cases, it would be a noun, and means a full face of something; whether that’s abuse or food would depend on the context.
These replies, I like!
So I also think that the zero conditional permits the present perfect and continuous forms.
Unless prices are rising, it’s not a good investment.
Unless you have been there, you can’t imagine it.
Personally I think that to have a faceful of food means to eat to satiety. And to give someone a faceful means to give them a verbal dressing down.
What I should learn to do is ask the student to repeat what they said, which in this case was actually ‘faithful,’ and chill with getting new vocab up too fast. Suddenly they are all asking, ‘what does faceful mean please?’
I taught my class the first scene of last weeks Eastenders. (I warn you now that the language is rich. This episode is available on the BBCi player if you wish to see it, Wednesday 8th July) Context… Gary and Dawn are a couple. Dawn and Phil have just had a f*ck and Dawn is stood behind the door in her knickers and bra, (purple) which obscures Garys’ view of her.)
Here it is ad nauseum:
Gary: Sorry to roll up like this. You ain’t seen Dawn have you?
Phil: Err… Sent her down the club. We’re short on change.
Gary: You’re uh flying half mast.
Phil: Thanks.
Gary: Yeah, err, it’s a big ask I know but I don’t suppose you can give her the night off, could you? Doughnuts on me tomorrow.
Phil: Well there’s an offer I can’t refuse. And err… I’ll send her, send her home as soon as she gets back.
Gary: I couldn’t borrow your motor could I?
Phil: My Jag? What for?
Gary: Whisk her away somewhere. You know, Thames barrier. Watch the sunset.
Phil: Oh, sounds nice.
Gary: Yeah right. Back to the drawing board eh?
Phil: Well err, I’d err, better get back downstairs.
Gary: Well look actually, while I’m here I could do with some advice. Do you mind?
Phil: Take a seat.
[quote=“TomHill”]Unless prices are rising, it’s not a good investment.
Unless you have been there, you can’t imagine it.[/quote]
You’re still using passive construction. You have a reason for this? Active construction is usually more logical sounding, especially for learners.
“It’s not a good investment unless prices are rising.”
“You can’t imagine it unless you have been there.”
It is easier to bolt that word at the front, because I have a mixed nationality class, and they all have different learning backgrounds. Plus we did passives all week.