grammar about setences in a tv show

Question

There is a tv show about hunting alligators, and i heard this in the show

Is this convoluted or is it correct?
) The big alligators are worth 3 times what the small ones are worth.

"to be messing up on" is this correct?
) That's too big an alligator to be messing up on. you better catch it.

) You need to drive faster to make up being late.

I appreciate the help

Enoon · Accepted Answer

1. The big alligators are worth 3 times what the small ones are worth.

This is unremarkable American English.

2. That's too big an alligator to be messing up on.

To mess up is to make a mistake. It is rather colloquial.

3. You need to drive faster to make up being late.

It isn't Hemingway, but it is clear enough. You can't "make up" "being late", you make up time, but it's the kind of mish-mash you hear in speech all the time without giving it a second thought. Do not take this as a good example.

Henry74 · Answer

Hi,

Can I also ask something about those sentences?
Shouldn't 2) and 3) read respectively:
2) That's too big an alligator to be messing up with
3) You need to drive faster to make up for being late

I'm guessing they shouldn't, since you didn't correct that. So perhaps there is something that I don't understand about those sentences.

Thank you.
H.

Enoon · Answer

That's too big an alligator to be messing up with.

Not really. You make a mistake on a test or on a project, among other things. The alligator is being seen as a sort of project. That alligator is so big that if you make a mistake while capturing and subduing him, he could kill you, whereas if he was a small one, you would probably survive. "With" works, too, but I would expect "on", normally.

You need to drive faster to make up for being late.

No. To make up for something means to atone. Driving faster will not make amends for being late. The parent expression is "to make up time", which means to get the time back by going faster. Say you have to be somewhere at 10 o'clock. If you stop for gas while driving there, you lose some time. You make up that time by driving faster. Our swamp boy misspoke a little bit when he tossed in "being late" where "time" should go.

Henry74 · Answer

Thank you for answering me.
In the first example I think I got mixed up with That's too big an alligator to be messing with or to mess with, which should be correct, right?
As for the second example, perhaps I should have read more carefully the explanation that you had already provided. I got confused by the conjunction of make up with being late.

Thank you.
H.

Anonymous · Answer

I'm watching the show swamp people and the english is not very good.

I also heard this
Can you help by telling if it nice english and what to fix please?

We have alligator feet, heads, teeth. Anything part or thing that has to do with alligator, we have. Nothing is wasted off a gator.
I had a feeling you'd never know what you were going to do when the gator surfaced.

With every minute that goes by, the alligator fights harder.
I build boat that help people I'm build it for.
Some alligators taste better than other ????? than other times or other alligators.

At the end of alligator season, the alligators who have gotten away have hooks in them from all the lines they have broken to get away.

Thanks in advance

Enoon · Answer

In the first example I think I got mixed up with That's too big an alligator to be messing with or to mess with, which should be correct, right?

Right. That explains it. But, as I am sure you are aware, "that's too big an alligator to be messing with" means you should not engage with it at all, which is not what the inbred, slack-jawed yokel meant. (No offense, all you inbred, slack-jawed yokels. You're gator trappers, for crying out loud, not fashion magazine editors. Don't be so sensitive.)

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Enoon,

Can you please help me on the 5 sentences as you did the first one, the explanations really helped?

Thanks in advance

AlpheccaStars · Answer

enoonIn the first example I think I got mixed up with That's too big an alligator to be messing with or to mess with, which should be correct, right?

There are two different phrasal verbs here:

To mess up - to blunder, to ruin, to make a big mistake (on)

I don't want to mess up on this test. If I mess this one up, I will fail the whole course.
Don't bring John onto our project. He always messes things up.

To mess with - to get involved with, to experiment with, to bother or upset

Don't mess with rattlesnakes. They can kill you.
Teenagers shouldn't mess with drugs. Drugs can ruin one's life.
The gang leader said, "Don't mess with my sister. If you do, you will be sorry."

Enoon · Answer

I don't believe that you have transcribed the first accurately. I used to be a redneck, and we didn't talk like that. I will change it to what I think might have been said, if you don't mind. If I am wrong, let me know.

We have alligator feet, heads, teeth. Anything part or thing that has to do with alligator, we have. Nothing is wasted off a gator.

The earnestness and sturdy good humor displayed here are exemplary. This is how an American clodhopper should talk. The only thing non-standard there, I'd say, is "off". "No part of the gator is wasted" would be standard. He meant that once he gets done taking things off the gator, there is nothing left.

I had a feeling you'd never know what you were going to do when the gator surfaced.

He misspoke. There is an expression, "you never know", used in combination with things like "what's going to happen", "how Putin will react", "what she will do when she stops taking her lithium". That "you never know" just sort of fell into this sentence by accident. In standard English, that would be, "I had a feeling you wouldn't know what to do when the gator surfaced" or "I had a feeling you didn't know what you were going to do when the gator surfaced." I think those two ideas collided in his sun-baked brain, and "you never know" got knocked loose.

With every minute that goes by, the alligator fights harder.

Perfect English.

I build boat that help people I'm build it for.

We might have a deep swamp Cajun there, and that's Englished-up Louisiana Creole. If so, I can't help you. The mistakes in that are not the kind that any native speaker could ever make.

Some alligators taste better than others.

Than other alligators.

At the end of alligator season, the alligators who have gotten away have hooks in them from all the lines they have broken to get away.

Perfect English.

You're welcome in retrospect.

Anonymous · Answer

HI,

Many thanks for you help,

I build boat that help people I'm build it for.

what do you think about

I build boats that cater to peoples needs.

What's the difference

Sometimes alligators taste better than others.

Does this mean

Sometimes alligators taste better than other times.
Sometimes alligators taste better than other alligators.

Good day to you

grammar about setences in a tv show

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