In one of the movies I recently watched, the servant of the house is caught stealing by his mistress. His master takes him into the room for interrogation. He comes out after a few minutes.(My questions are at the end)
Wife- What did he say? Husband- Not much that he is sorry. Wife- Ask him to pack his bags and leave right
now. Husband- Firing him is like putting a tiny bandage
on a deep wound.
Q1- “Not much that he is sorry” What is the
meaning? What sort of a sentence structure is that?
Q2- “Firing him is like putting a tiny bandage
on a deep wound.” What is the meaning?
Q3- “Ask him to pack his bags…” I think it should
be “Tell him to pack his bags…”
I think he didn’t say much of the words(maybe something offensive,insulting)to regret about what he had said
Here is a case of simile
like putting a tiny bandage on a deep wound has a figurative sense in this sentence and means in vain,uselessly
As you know tiny bandage cannot prevent a deep wound from bleeding :lol:
Yes,both are acceptable.
p.s.Anyway I’m sure that Amy will help you
Tom, to be honest, I misread your last question. Now I made some amendments
I would assume that there was at least a slight pause between “much” and “that”. (Or at least the speaker intended to pause…:lol:)
The meaning: (He did) not (say) much — (He just said) that he is sorry.
I agree with Pamela.
Using the word ask instead of tell is extremely common in English when talking about giving someone a command. It sounds more polite since making a request (ask) is “nicer” than making a demand (tell). In your sentence, the person could also have used “tell”. But, as I mentioned, using “ask” is very common and I wouldn’t see it as unusual, even though politeness probably wasn’t much of an issue in this case.
As a further example:
If you call John Smith at his office and he isn’t available and you then want his secretary to tell him to call you back as soon as possible, using the word “ask” would be extremely typical and usually preferable: Could you ask him to call me back as soon as he returns?
Well, whether or not did you like the questions in this thread?