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Maverick88 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Foot
1) Is it correct to say 'by foot' instead of 'on foot'?
2) What's the proverb which says something like 'to wake up on the wrong foot' and means that you started the day unsuccessfully.
3) Every idiom is a proverb but NOT vice versa. Is this correct?
Because I understand 'idiom' as a preverb whose meaning cannot be derived straightforwardly from the meaning of its words.
2) What's the proverb which says something like 'to wake up on the wrong foot' and means that you started the day unsuccessfully.
3) Every idiom is a proverb but NOT vice versa. Is this correct?
Because I understand 'idiom' as a preverb whose meaning cannot be derived straightforwardly from the meaning of its words.
Top answer
Hello Mav 1) 'By foot' puts emphasis on the mode of transport: cf. 'by bus', 'by train'. ' would draw attention to the fact that you were deliberately choosing to use your feet.
- Hello Mav 1) 'By foot' puts emphasis on the mode of transport: cf.
- 'by bus', 'by train'.
- ' would draw attention to the fact that you were deliberately choosing to use your feet.
- ' 2) Perhaps 'the day got off to a bad start'; 'it started off on the wrong foot'; it got off on the wrong foot'.
- There's also a phrase 'I got out of bed on the wrong side this morning'; but I take that to mean 'I have been ill-at-ease and cross so far today'.
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11 Answers
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Hello Mav
1) 'By foot' puts emphasis on the mode of transport: cf. 'by bus', 'by train'.
So 'Sightseeing by foot!' would draw attention to the fact that you were deliberately choosing to use your feet.
'On foot', on the other hand, would be used if you wanted to contrast modes of transport within a particular journey:
'I went part of the way on foot, then
1) 'By foot' puts emphasis on the mode of transport: cf. 'by bus', 'by train'.
So 'Sightseeing by foot!' would draw attention to the fact that you were deliberately choosing to use your feet.
'On foot', on the other hand, would be used if you wanted to contrast modes of transport within a particular journey:
'I went part of the way on foot, then
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Thanks, MrP, 'I got out of bed on the wrong side this morning' is what I meant.
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Hello Mav (and MrP)
Please allow me to make an unnecessary addition.
In old days, there was no bus, no car, no bike, no plane. What usual people could use to go somewhere was their feet or horses. When they used a horse as the transportation means, they said 'ride on horseback'. As a parallelism of 'ride on horseback', they said 'go on foot' when they walked. It
Please allow me to make an unnecessary addition.
In old days, there was no bus, no car, no bike, no plane. What usual people could use to go somewhere was their feet or horses. When they used a horse as the transportation means, they said 'ride on horseback'. As a parallelism of 'ride on horseback', they said 'go on foot' when they walked. It
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Hello Paco
That's an interesting thought. I wonder in that case if 'by foot' came into English as a parallelism of 'go by car', 'go by train', etc.
If so, it would be a pleasingly symmetrical situation.
For 'the space a building stands on', you often hear 'footprint' these days. In fact, anything that stands can have a footprint: a desk, a cupboard, a mobile home.
That's an interesting thought. I wonder in that case if 'by foot' came into English as a parallelism of 'go by car', 'go by train', etc.
If so, it would be a pleasingly symmetrical situation.
For 'the space a building stands on', you often hear 'footprint' these days. In fact, anything that stands can have a footprint: a desk, a cupboard, a mobile home.
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Hello MrP
Do you mean OED by 'a particular piece of softeware'? That is quite pretty. Less than 2 MB I suppose.
paco
Do you mean OED by 'a particular piece of softeware'? That is quite pretty. Less than 2 MB I suppose.
paco
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I was thinking it could be used of any piece of software:
Footprint
150 MB of available hard-disk space; optional installation files cache (recommended) requires an additional 200 MB of available hard-disk space
etc........
MrP
Footprint
150 MB of available hard-disk space; optional installation files cache (recommended) requires an additional 200 MB of available hard-disk space
etc........
MrP
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Although I'm an engineer, I don't know much about computers. I have changed my computer for a new one almost every year but I cannot set up them without my daughter's help. Sad.
Anyway I think nowadays it would be reasonable to assume that 'wake up on the wrong footprint' is a real etymon of 'wake up on the wrong foot'.
paco
Anyway I think nowadays it would be reasonable to assume that 'wake up on the wrong footprint' is a real etymon of 'wake up on the wrong foot'.
paco
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In the U.S. we say it a little differently: "I got up on the wrong side of the bed today." 
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Mav
My understanding about 'idioms' is that it is such a phrase that a teacher cannot explain its construction to students with his knowledge of English grammar. The English teachers who taught me in school days knew millions of 'idioms'. For them 95 % of English phrases would have been 'idioms', I suppose.
paco
My understanding about 'idioms' is that it is such a phrase that a teacher cannot explain its construction to students with his knowledge of English grammar. The English teachers who taught me in school days knew millions of 'idioms'. For them 95 % of English phrases would have been 'idioms', I suppose.
paco
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