# Forum Other Languages English for Russians - Изучаем английский язык Learn English - Грамматика, переводы, словарный запас  belongsa

## net surfer

What does "belongsa" stand for? belong...?  _"Who belongsa this?" Ackley said. He was holding my roommate's knee supporter up to show me._

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## Joseph

I suspect that "Who belongsa this?" is a slurred way of saying "Who belongs to this?", which is a colloquial way of expressing the idiom "Who does this belong to?" ("To whom does this belong?" is grammatically correct.) 
Hope I've helped 
Joe

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## Dogboy182

Ah... i see now. Earlier when u asked me alex, i couldn't see but yea, i think that's right. Usually when talking we will replace small prepositions, with just "sounds". Like "A".  
its' really stupid to put this in a book though. 
Some examples from regular speach though would be like...  
"we'oin ta thamall ?" 
"(are) we going to the mall ?" 
"Throw (air) ball t' me"
"Throw the ball to me" 
instead of saying "the ball", if ur in a hurry u can just kinda breath out and then say Ball, without even saying the word "the", the puase will take its place. Though, this is only like, when playing sports, or something, and you dont have time to say "THE".

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## smithnweson

everybody abbreviates there own language at times, its not an English or American phenomena!!!!

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## BETEP

This question is mostly directed to Brits. How often do you say words like "kinda", "sorta", "gonna" and so on?

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## joysof

All the darned time, BETEP. 
Especially ''kinda'' and ''gonna''.

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## BJ

None of the darned time, BETEP!

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## net surfer

Joseph, dogboy thanks.
I was just confused by the word order, I didn't think that the question "Who belongs to this?" is correct. I thought the only right one is "Who does this belong to?" that was why I couldn't guess.

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## BETEP

I am confused. Two Brits - two opinions.  ::

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## DDT

Some people pride themselvs on their speaking habits and speak only correct English. Others are more relaxed  and drop letters at the end of words and blend the words together. A lot has to do with where you live  and who you associate with. I mean, I can't really picture the Queen, for instance using "kinda or gonna" at her tea parties.

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## scotcher

> I am confused. Two Brits - two opinions.

 One of them was sarcasm.

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## joysof

Which one?

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## BJ

Guess.  ::

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## joysof

Well, it's a relief. Had worried that I was doing it unconsciously. 
Edit: if you need a serious answer, ВЕТЕР, I would say that all three are extremely common in spoken British English. To the point that a conversation seldom passes without at least one of them being used.

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## smithnweson

joysof wrote: "in spoken british english". thats an oxymoron! Since the language is orignally English its wrong to say british english, theres english, and then theres the american varient to it. 
-idiot!!!

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## майк

> joysof wrote: "in spoken british english". thats an oxymoron!

 Actually, I notice that joysof said, 'in spoken British English'. 
I thought oxymoron was a kinda (just put that in for joysof ::  paradox, a combination of incongruous words like *deafening silence*. I guess, in the context of your post, you might have meant that the phrase 'British English' was tautologous. What do you think   ::

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## майк

> What does "belongsa" stand for? belong...?  _"Who belongsa this?" Ackley said. He was holding my roommate's knee supporter up to show me._

 Just really repeating what has been said above. I don't know anything about Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' but - 
"Who belongsa this?" Ackley said. 
is "*Who belongs to this*", which is a kind of joke. Just like holding up a large shoe and saying the same thing. 
The whole story is fulla truncated words n stuff like "Where the hellja get that hat?" - obviously - "Where the hell did you get that hat?" 
Hey alexei. I hope you enjoyed the, "tickled the pants off Ackley" phrase   ::

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## net surfer

Yeah, there are a lot of "willya", "don'tcha" etc and I can guess what them mean because of the normal word order.  
Mike, of course I enjoyed it :) I enjoyed the entire book. It's great!

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## smithnweson

oxy moron means something that is already obvious from the previous statement or word for example "I have a big mansion" or "British English"! its oxymoronic!

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## майк

> oxy moron means something that is already obvious from the previous statement or word

 No. That is incorrect. (1) *oxymoron* - an epigrammatic effect, by which contradictory terms are used in conjunction: *beautiful tyrant* (The Collins English Dictionary). (2) The reference for my original post - it is a kind of paradox, a combination of incongruous words like *deafening silence* - 'The Grammar Guide' by Grodon Jarvie. 
In Russian Lingvo gives: *оксюморон* ( сочетание противоположных по значению слов ), which means a combination of contradictory (or opposite) words. The same meaning is set out in http://krossw.narod.ru/htm/16/1671.htm - ОКСИМОРОН (оксюморон) (греч. oxymoron - букв. - остроумно-глупое), стилистическая фигура, сочетание противоположных по значению слов ("живой труп" - Л. Н. Толстой; "*жар холодных числ*" - А. А. Блок).  
Where do you get your definition from   ::

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## Indra

He should say, *tautology*: Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

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## smithnweson

oh yeah thats right, but I was mixing it up with another word not tautology, its an expression used for saying something "like kicking a dead corpse", I'll remember it and post it later, its not redundant either, hmmmm, weird!

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## Dogboy182

An oxymoron is saying like "I'm so smart I didn't graduate highscool." (Implying that the place was too stupid for you or something). 
By the way, it's Smith & Wesson.

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## smithnweson

yeah I know....my name is smithnweson!!! u know like an abbreviation instead of the whole company title?

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## Dogboy182

well, i *can* understand if it was like "Smithnwesson" 
But why just 1 S? Now you're just spelling the guys name wrong. 
It's like saying "I live in Amrc"... What ? 
Oh im just abbriviating "America".

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## smithnweson

dude whats up!!! why are you starting Sh*t over my name??? why write an extra S if you don't give a F'ing Sh*t to began with it dosn't sound any different anyway, unless your a snake ssssss...dogboy, what do you act like a dog, or do you love dogs or something???
leave it to you to start a new argument over some lame as sh*t like an extra s in an arbitruary name. "S", "SS", deal with it. hahahaha!!!!

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## TiaraNEug

...here we go again...

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## bad manners

> it dosn't sound any different anyway

 Ungrammatical nonsense, as always. "Weson" would sound like "wee - zon" or "wee - son".

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## joysof

> He should say, tautology: Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

 Better, he should say nothing at all. 
And I have never in my life committed tautology. Ever.

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## майк

> And I have never in my life committed tautology. Ever.

 joysof you are, once again, eloquent and, of course, brief.   ::

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## smithnweson

my name is smith n. weson!!!   my last name is weson, you guys are pathetic.

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## bad manners

So you have an error in your real name? You're hopeless.

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## Dogboy182

How were we supposed to know your name.  
And yes i'm starting with you again, because i don't like you. 
Everything you say, every thread you make i will find some way to spin it around and make you look like a moron. And, believe me, it's not going to be hard.

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## Friendy

> So you have an error in your real name? You're hopeless.

 But you yourself said that "weson" is pronounced as wee-zon, so what's wrong with someone having it for a real name pronounced that way. Even if there is an error in his real name it's not his fault since we're not chosing our names ourselves (usually).

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## joysof

Anyone whose real name is Smith N. Weson is, sadly, doomed from birth.

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## JB

I want to see the parent's who did that to their kid!  ::

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## TiaraNEug

> yeah I know....my name is smithnweson!!! u know like an abbreviation instead of the whole company title?

 Technically if your name is Smith N. Weson-then your online name isn't an abbreviation, я прав? It's your full name (or "whole title" as you like to call it).  

> an arbitruary name.

 If it is, in fact, your real name, why would you call it *arbitruary*? (Which is translated in English as "arbitrary.")

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## joysof

Like shooting fish in a bucket, isn't it?

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## Dogboy182

> Like shooting fish in a bucket, isn't it?

 It's like poking fish on the river bank.

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## Harpobeamer

The Wessons probably changed the spelling of their name during the 1930s, so as not to have the offending letter combination "SS". Any Wessons that still have the retained double s are obviously Nazi sympathizers. 
Just like Tammy Faye Bakker--she spells her name with two Ks because three would be too obvious.
I thought maybe the guy in the story, who said "Who belongsa this", was a native Italian speaker. When you want to write in a stereotypically Italian-English way, you end a lot of words with an a. 
"No-a you smoke-a" = "Don't smoke" 
Dogboy, be nice! *glares admonishingly* Grrrr... 
Thank you,
The Management
Department of Redundancy Department

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## brett

In cricket, the term "how's that?" (said to the umpire, hoping he has defeated the batsman) has become unreckognizeable. 
yr 1920 -In thick upper-class English accent "Dear sir, may I be so presumptious to ask as to the status of this batsman's wicket?"
yr 1950- "I say sir, how is that one?"
yr 1970- In thick West Indian accent "Yo maan, howz thaat one be, yeah?"
yr 1990- In broad Australian accent "HOWZAT?"
yr 2000- English doesn't have the letters to facilitate today's pronunciation. 
Well... I'll give it a go. "WADABATHAWAA!" (perhaps meant to say "What about that one?"

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