Hello Maurice,
In Hungarian we say the same word inherit sth (in medical and daily using- I believed that I told you wrongly, but I calmed down it was good.) The English say also in this way. But there are other expressions for it:
come into the inherit sth -inherit sth from sb (I told you this one) - be heir to sth.
Now it is early morning and it occurred to me that I told wrongly. I believed that to inherit is a medical verb and means when I inherit a virtue ( for example patience or susceptibility to an illness) from my parents. Now I looked up the dictionary because I wanted to see clearly. I see that I can say I inherited some money from my mother.So inherit is used similarly in English and in Hungarian.
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I would like to revise these words with you .
1 [transitive, intransitive] inherit (something) (from somebody)
to receive money, property, etc. from somebody when they die
-She inherited a fortune from her father.
-He will inherit the title on the death of his uncle.
2 [transitive] inherit something (from somebody)
to have qualities, physical features, etc. that are similar to those of your parents, grandparents, etc
-He has inherited his mother’s patience.
-You inherited a passion for music from your mother.
-an inherited disease
3 [transitive] inherit something (from somebody)
if you inherit a particular situation from somebody, you are now responsible for dealing with it, especially because you have replaced that person in their job
-policies inherited from the previous administration
-I inherited a number of problems from my predecessor.
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He came into his inheritance(received) at eighteen.
The title passes by inheritance to the eldest son.(legal expressions)
But not legal if I say:
She spent all her inheritance in a year.
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be heir to sth
heir (to something)| heir (of somebody)
BrE:/ eə(r)/ AmE/ er/
1
a person who has the legal right to receive somebody’s property, money or title when that person dies
-to be heir to a large fortune
the heir to the throne (= the person who will be the next king or queen)
(We can say : Who succeeded King Henry VIII? Edward IV his son and heir succeeded him. or Edward IV became king of England in succession to Henry VIII.)
2
a person who is thought to continue the work or a tradition started by somebody else
the president’s political heirs
HELP :Use an, not a, before heir. as the ‘h’ is mute.
OTHER EXPRESSION WHICH CAUSED ME PROBLEM : GUM when we speak about the flesh in the mouth usually we say it plural: GUMS, but in the other expression gum is U nouns.
bleeding of the gums
dent: cancer of the gums
dent: inflammation of the gums
dent: recession of the gums
dent: shrinking of the gums
dent: swelling of the gums
“Healthy gums, healthy life.” -I saw in a dentist’s ad. We can say we have gum problems./products for gum problems (here not the gum is in plural but problems/products)
[b] gum /b = a sticky substance produced by some types of tree for exp: resin = secretion of coniferous trees as pine(trees)
3 [uncountable] = a type of glue used for sticking light things together, such as paper
4 [uncountable]= chewing gum
I’ve cleared them up. It is interesting that when we begin to speak we became uncertain because the words what we use every day don’t come into our mind or we realize that we never met this word for exp: gums (pl) in this meaning. I think I knew the gum since we can buy chewing gum in Hungary, but I never thought that this part of our mouth is gum or gums. Did you know?
I hope I wasn’t boring.
Take care:
Kati
