[Alex80]

Hi everone!
Could you please give me the shortest and simplest similar meanings to the following that are taken from the story "The Canary" by Katherine Mansfield:
1.Dreadfully untrue! ( dreadfully: does it mean very badly, extremely or what?)
2. "Regular "in: you are a regular little actor.(in the sense of scolding the bird) Does it mean usual or pro or with no exra features or a real or what?
3."tucked" in : I...... tucked a piece of chickweed. (Please i need the shortest meaning or synonym)
4. Verandah( i think it means porch not balcony)
* Grammer questions:
1. can I say: The story ends sadly when the canary dies or died/ or sadly with death of the canary or with the canary's death
2.a.The nail brought back the sweet memories of the bird to Missus.
b.The nail brought her back the sweet memories of the bird.
3. When i want to write a short of the author's life and achievements in 10 or 20 lines, would be a suitabke title to write" Katherine Mansfield's biography " or " Katherine Mansfield' life" ?
Which one is correct? How can i shorten the sentence?
Thanks in advance

[susan53]

Vocabulary

I'm going to have to use a few technical terms in answering this, but if any aren't clear you'll find a complete explanation and examples in the ELT Glossary

1. Dreadfully untrue : dreadfully is an intensifier so, the meaning is completely. The negative connotations of the word add to those of untrue so make it more negative than if you just said It's completely untrue. But there's not a great deal of difference.

2. Regular here means you behave just like.... So a paraphrase would be You're a complete actor! - in other words - You're Just pretending! Another example : He's always telling us what we should do - he's a regular dictator!

3. If the sentence you mean is I tucked in a bit of chickweed it means put in carefully - so eg I put a bit of chickweed into the cage - But it can also mean eat with pleasure so eg I put some chickweed into the cage and the canary tucked in. or The canary tucked into the chickweed which I put in the cage.

4. Veranda - yes, a porch.

Have to do something now but will come back to the grammar questions later or tomorrow if no-one else has.

[Alex80]

Thank you , my friend, for your wonderful explanation.
Please, do not forget the grammar questions.
I need to know the answers to them. They totally confused me.

[susan53]

OK - here are my answers to your grammar questions :

1. The following are possible:

a) The story ends sadly when the canary dies - Fine. The story is always the same - a "permanent" event - so the present simple is appropriate


b) The story ended sadly when the canary died. If you want to present the sentence as being your experience of the story, rather than a recount of the plot itself, then the past tense is appropriate as you've finished the book. But in this case both verbs must be past.

c) The story ends sadly with the death of the canary. Notice that you need the article

d) The story ends sadly with the canary's death - Fine


2.a)The nail brought back the sweet memories of the bird to Missus. This is grammatically incorrect as "the" is not needed and odd because you can't use "Missus" like that. It's old fashioned (the story was written in 1923) and notice that it's used by the character in direct speech to refer to herself, aping what her lodgers call her. It's not a descriptive term used by the writer. So :

The nail brought back sweet memories of the bird to the narrator. or, if you prefer, ...to the woman.

b) Incorrect word order. It should be I]The nail brought sweet memories of the bird back to her[/i]

3. [A biography of Katherine Mansfield or The Life of Katherine Mansfield. You can't shorten it. The shorter forms you mention would be fine if you were speaking about it, but inappropriate for a title of a piece of written discourse.

[Alex80]

Clear and logical explanation! Many thanks, my friend.
God bless you.