“If you study long, you study wrong”

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

For example, you don’t study well, you don’t like tests, you don’t have friends, school is boring, you don’t have good relationships, you don’t feel well. Is there a part of you that finds it hard to accept these things as cause and effect?

  1. Should it be you don’t study hard instead?
  2. Is the first sentence complete?

Thanks.

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2

These are two different meanings.

You don’t do an effective job of studying.

you don’t study hard
You don’t put a lot of effort into studying.

When I was in school, we had a saying “If you study long, you study wrong”, meaning that a shorter time spent studying could be more effective than a longer time spent just staring at a book.

In reality, of course, this was just an excuse to go out and do something fun.

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3

There is difference between studying long and studying well.
By the way, the conditional sentence “If you study long, you study wrong.” should be: If you study long, you will study wrong. (Type I conditional)
Practically, it is not true, though!

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4

Hi Anglophile,

I do not completely agree. I would say it is the conditional type 0, like: If you heat water to 100 degrees, it boils. (100 degrees Celsius, of course.)

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5

Actually, the original sentence could be stated “If you are studying long, you are studying wrong” since the intent was to convince a conscientious student to stop studying and go out and waste time.

For the stated purpose, the version with fewer words has more punch.

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6

I have not heard this before, but it’s obviously a saying. It doesn’t have to be grammatically correct. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence.

A saying is typically short and easy to remember.
“Study long, study wrong.”

It doesn’t need anything else. Adding more words detracts from the saying.

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7

I agree with you completely, but if you want it to be grammatically correct, the 0 conditional is more correct than the 1st conditional. It’s like stating a fact or a slogan - an idea- (as you did). The following is the idea behind it:

“If you are studying long, you are studying wrong” since the intent was to convince a conscientious student to stop studying and go out and waste time." by Arinker.
So, ‘if you’re heating water long, it’s going to boil.’

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8

Well, @Masme, I doubt whether we can equate ‘If you study long, you study wrong.’ with ‘If you heat water, it boils.’
As a rule, I have seen scientific facts, universal truths and the like being used in the Zero Conditional structure.

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