large open windows

Question

It was a beautiful place - a stucco white design with large open windows, so you could look out at the beach while you were eating.Does it mean the windows were all open?Thanks.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

Seems unlikely. It most probably means that the windows are unobstructed.

Optilang · Answer

New2grammarIt was a beautiful place - a stucco white design with large open windows, so you could look out at the beach while you were eating.

Does it mean the windows were all open?
Thanks.

Sounds strange to me, but that's my understanding.

New2grammar · Answer

Sorry. Mr Wordy but I don't understand the meaning of open here. Are you saying the view is unobstructed, meaning you can see whatever is outside the window?

Optilang · Answer

optilang
New2grammarIt was a beautiful place - a stucco white design with large open windows, so you could look out at the beach while you were eating.

Does it mean the windows were all open?
Thanks.

Sounds strange to me, but that's my understanding.

On second thoughts, it doesn't sound that strange. If this is a hotel/restaurant, maybe the windows were always open at meal times, if the climate allowed. In which case it sounds quite nice. When I first read it I thought it was about a house, and that would seem strange.

BarbaraPA · Answer

I'd say it's ambiguous, but I vote for the "unobstructed" meaning, since the description is of a place, not a specific experience. A specific experience might refer to how lovely it was to have the windows open. Also it refers to what you can SEE, and doesn't mention the ocean breezes, scent of the sea, etc., that would drift into a window that was open in the open/closed sense of the word.

RayH · Answer

New2grammarstucco white design

Not to quibble but this sounds better as "white stucco design."

New2grammar · Answer

Thank you, everyone.

Mr Wordy · Answer

New2grammarSorry. Mr Wordy but I don't understand the meaning of open here. Are you saying the view is unobstructed, meaning you can see whatever is outside the window?

Well, the view is unobstructed on account of the windows being unobstructed (by walls, other buildings, trees, hedges, banks etc.) It's a similar use of "open" to that in expressions such as "an open outlook", "an open field" etc.

BTW, my thinking is the same as GG's: it seems to be a general description, and a general description is unlikely to say that the windows were open in the sense of "not shut", since at different times they might be either open or shut.

Optilang · Answer

Windows can only be obstructed if something is placed in front of the window which prevents you looking/seeing through it, such as a drawn curtain.

If there is an something the other side of the window, then it obstructs the view not the window, since it is still possible to see through the window to the obstruction.

Nona the brit · Answer

I'd add a further interpretation - I'd think of these as windows with large panes of glass, giving a good view, rather than windows with lots of framework and small panes of glass that obstruct the view rather.

large open windows

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