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Jackson6612 Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

''explain me the meaning'' and ''explain the meaning to me''

0The following sentence is incorrect:02br
02br
01b01font00Please explain me the meaning.02font02b02br
02br
00I'm surprised that nobody ever pointed out my mistake in such a basic sentence which I have used in many posts.02br
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00The correct sentence is as CalifJim told me:02br
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01b01font00Please explain the meaning to me.02font02b02br
02br
01b01font00OR02font02b02br
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01b01font00Please explain to me the meaning.02font02b02br
02br
01font00Now my question is what is so wrong with 01i01b00please explain me the meaning02b02i00 that it is deemed incorrect?02font0-
  

Top answer

0 It's a bad repetition of 01i 00me02i 00. 0-

— Marius Hancu

  • 0 It's a bad repetition of 01i 00me02i 00.
  • 0-
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13 Answers
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0 It's a bad repetition of 01i00me02i00. 0-
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0 I made some mistakes in my earlier post. Now I have corrected it, so have a look again. 0-
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0 CJ has told you already by his examples that "to" is normally preferred after "explain." 02br
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01b00Do your homework02b00 and do some searches at Google 02br
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00 http:/www.google.com 02br
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00 for:02br
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01font00site:bbc.co.uk "explained me" 02br
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0 01blockquote
02br
12br
11b10Do your homework.12b12br
12br
12blockquote
10Dear Marius,02br
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00Why did you say that?0-
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0 Because you don't seem to reflect enough on the answers you're getting and to complement them with your searches, etc, you're just asking more questions. 02br
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00 Have you done the searches I told you to see what they demonstrate to you? Probably not. You just asked another question. 0-
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0Dear Marius,02br
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00I did perform those searches. According to those searches using 01i00to02i00 after explain is more appropriate.02br
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00Best Wishes,02br
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00Jack IV0-
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0 Glad to see you did the right work. Use those type of searches in other matters of usage too. 0-
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0Jackson -- "Explain" can take both a direct object (what is being explained) and an indirect object (who it is being explained to). If you say "Please explain me," it seems as if "me" is the direct object. You could say, for instance, (although it would be a little odd) "Please explain me to your wife -- she doesn't understand me at all!"02br
02br
00I'm sure this is confus
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0>I don't understand Marius Hancu's comment about "a bad repetition of me.02br
00 He changed his posting. 0-
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0 Oh, right -- I saw the comment that he had changed his posting but didn't connect it to your comment. Sorry! 0-
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