Thread: Is this really genuine..."In the USSR we don't have sex"

Originally Posted by Johanna

lye about it!

Is that how they spell lie in England?

Originally Posted by sperk

Originally Posted by Johanna

lye about it!

Is that how they spell lie in England?

No, Johanna simply made a typo -- "lye" means sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in all English-speaking countries. (Exactly the same pronunciation as "lie".)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Originally Posted by sperk

Originally Posted by Johanna

lye about it!

Is that how they spell lie in England?

No, Johanna simply made a typo --

He is right and it's really just a very polite way to say that I made a spelling mistake! Sorry! No idea why I misspelled such a simple word.

Thinking about it: Maybe because "lying" is spelled with an "y", and because, like Throbert said, there IS a word "lye" although it's different from "lie" which can also mean "lie down"...

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Всем. Вообще, вырывать фразу из контекста - мерзкое дело.

Слова без контекста — это уже повод для всяческих разговоров. Я помню фразу, которую произнёс Билл Клинтон, когда его допрашивали о Монике Левински. Он сказал: “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.” Фраза вызвала у нас всеобщее презрение, так как казалось, что этими словами он по-детски старался не признаваться в ситуации, которую он сам создал своим плохим поведением. Я был из тех, кто сыскал запись допроса. В контексте его слова имели смысл и были очень кстати. Но этого никто не помнит. Мы помним только эти слова и его недостаток чести.

(Я не хочу сказать, что он вообще был без чести, но, понимаете, в связи с Левински...)

Originally Posted by doninphxaz

Я был из тех, кто сыскал запись допроса.

This sentence is not perfect (although it is grammatically correct). In this context we say either “я из тех, кто” (if you want to accent the present state of affairs) or “я был среди тех, кто” (if you want to accent that event was in the past). The expression “я был из тех” means that you had some quality/ability, but now you have not it. This contradicts to what you possibly mean in English: “I have found the interrogation record”. Also, “сыскал” sounds old-fashioned. We ususally use “разыскал” instead.

Originally Posted by Johanna

No idea why I misspelled such a simple word.

Maybe... because, like Throbert said, there IS a word "lye"

Johanna, since you're from Sweden, maybe you were subconsciously hungry for lutefisk!

Hmmm... from Russian wikipedia, it seems that щёлочь is the best translation for "lye" -- the entry for лютефиск explains that the literal meaning is рыба в щёлочи.

Originally Posted by SAn

The expression “я был из тех” means that you had some quality/ability, but now you [s:2t6iybp5]have not[/s:2t6iybp5] don't have it.

Вместо "you don't have it" можно сказать и "you haven't got it". (But NB that the present-tense form "to have got" is highly idiomatic, so you can't generalize from it.)

Originally Posted by SAn

Originally Posted by doninphxaz

Я был из тех, кто сыскал запись допроса.

This sentence is not perfect (although it is grammatically correct). In this context we say either “я из тех, кто” (if you want to accent the present state of affairs) or “я был среди тех, кто” (if you want to accent that event was in the past). The expression “я был из тех” means that you had some quality/ability, but now you have not it.

I disagree. Я был из тех [немногих], кто решил проверить, а не вешают ли нам лапшу на уши sounds good. It doesn't mean you don't check it now.