well understand
navi
1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
mean well.")
2- What you said was well understood. (instead of "What you said was
understood well")
3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
4-The work was well done. (instead of: The work was done well.)
5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
letter.)
Jeffrey Turner
> Are these correct:
>
> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
> mean well.")
> 2- What you said was well understood. (instead of "What you said was
> understood well")
>
> 3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
> 4-The work was well done. (instead of: The work was done well.)
>
> 5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
> letter.)
--
"We can have democracy in this country,
or we can have great wealth concentrated
in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
--Louis D. Brandeis
Mark Brader
>> Are these correct:
>>
>> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
>> mean well.")
> Yes
>> 2- What you said was well understood. (instead of "What you said was
>> understood well")
> Yes
>>
>> 3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
> No
>> 4-The work was well done. (instead of: The work was done well.)
> Yes
>>
>> 5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
>> letter.)
> No
I disagree on #1.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Don't let it drive you crazy...
m...@vex.net | Leave the driving to us!" --Wayne & Shuster
Mark Brader
>> I disagree on #1.
Andy Clews:
> For what reason?
Because #1, according to me, is not correct.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "The English future is very confusing!
m...@vex.net (This is not a political statement.)"
navi
Thank you all...
If the quoted text in Jefferey's post is 'hidden', it will cause
misunderstanding. At first I thought Jeffery was saying 'no' to all
five sentences.
Marius Hancu
> Are these correct:
>
> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
> mean well.")
This is correct, IMO, based on evidence
http://tinyurl.com/2etz3jz
present in published books. It fronts the "well" for emphasis and
seems accepted:
----
Parliamentary debates: Official report: Volume 27
Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons - 1982 - Snippet view
I well understand what you say. New clause 17 is differently worded
from the amendment that I put down to clause 71.
-----
Arnold Bennett, a biography
Reginald Pound - 1952 - 385 pages - Snippet view
I well understand what you mean when you talk of the discomforts felt
by anyone who has been used to an ordered existence.
-----
The papers of Woodrow Wilson: Volume 49
Arthur Stanley Link - 1994 - Snippet view
... I well understand what you mean. Some of our best friends in this
country feel the same anxiety.
----
Executioner's Prize - Page 304
Elyssa Jordan - 1992 - 397 pages - Preview
"As a journalist I well understand what you mean," she said softly. "I
have been assigned to research this so called 'denazification'
program. A very quaint word to describe the laundering process." She
gave Ruby a confidential ...
-----
Hazardous waste disposal: hearings before the Subcommittee on ...
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign
Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations - 1979 -
Snippet view
I well understand what you are talking about. As a matter of fact, we
have had, in my own area, a very similar problem.
-----
The others aren't getting the same acceptance though.
Marius Hancu
Marius Hancu
> Are these correct:
> 3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
No, IMO. The combination with "did" isn't too felicitous. It's used
rarely, mainly in poetry, librettos:
"I well did my"
http://tinyurl.com/29mcu4o
3 results
while
"I did my work well"
About 378 results, at GB
> 5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
> letter.)
No, IMO. "Well" isn't really used as a substitute for "indeed"
"I well received your"
0 hits
and could be in fact construed as "I accepted well the ..."
2 and 4 seem OK to me.
Marius
Stan Brown
>
> On 12/18/2010 12:31 AM, navi wrote:
> > Are these correct:
> >
> > 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
> > mean well.")
> Yes
I don't agree. "I well understand" sounds quite wrong to me. I
would use "I can well understand" or "I understand completely".
> > 2- What you said was well understood. (instead of "What you said was
> > understood well")
> Yes
Neither of those feels right to me, probably because the passive
construction, though grammatical, throws the sentence out of balance.
> > 3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
> No
Agreed.
> > 4-The work was well done. (instead of: The work was done well.)
> Yes
Not unless "the work" was a roast. "The work was done well" is the
only correct one of those two.
> > 5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
> > letter.)
> No
Agreed.
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...
John Dean
> Thus spake Mark Brader (m...@vex.net) unto the assembled multitudes:
>
>> I disagree on #1.
>
> For what reason?
It's obviously well wrong
--
John Dean
Oxford
Athel Cornish-Bowden
> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:19:18 -0500, Jeffrey Turner wrote:
>>
>> On 12/18/2010 12:31 AM, navi wrote:
>>> Are these correct:
>>>
>>> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
>>> mean well.")
>> Yes
>
> I don't agree. "I well understand" sounds quite wrong to me. I
> would use "I can well understand" or "I understand completely".
I wonder if this is pondian. For me "I well understand what you mean"
sounds quite normal, especially if followed by "but". I have probably
said it myself often enough.
>
--
athel
Mike Barnes
Agreed. It's a particularly emphatic construction.
--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England
Mark Brader
> If the quoted text in Jefferey's post is 'hidden', it will cause
> misunderstanding. At first I thought Jeffery was saying 'no' to all
> five sentences.
Don't do that, then. Sheesh.
By the way, he spells it Jeff or Jeffrey, not Jefferey or Jeffery.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto, m...@vex.net
"A system which depends upon the secrecy of its algorithm
is effectively a single-key code." -- William Brown II
tony cooper
T'isn't pondian. I don't see a problem with "I well understand...".
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
tony cooper
<marius...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Dec 18, 12:31 am, navi <lorca1...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Are these correct:
>>
>> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
>> mean well.")
>
>This is correct, IMO, based on evidence
>http://tinyurl.com/2etz3jz
>present in published books. It fronts the "well" for emphasis and
>seems accepted:
I feel that "I well understand..." is quite acceptable, but I wonder
about the logic of your supporting position. You frequently post
questions about published construction something along the line of
"Shouldn't this be...?" followed by a correcting construction.
If you frequently question the construction you find in books, how can
you base your agreement on what you find in published books?
Marius Hancu
> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:46:23 -0300, Athel Cornish-Bowden
>
>
>
> >On 2010-12-18 09:32:00 -0300, Stan Brown <the_stan_br...@fastmail.fm> said:
>
> >> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:19:18 -0500, Jeffrey Turner wrote:
>
> >>> On 12/18/2010 12:31 AM, navi wrote:
> >>>> Are these correct:
>
> >>>> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
> >>>> mean well.")
> >>> Yes
>
> >> I don't agree. "I well understand" sounds quite wrong to me. I
> >> would use "I can well understand" or "I understand completely".
>
> >I wonder if this is pondian. For me "I well understand what you mean"
> >sounds quite normal, especially if followed by "but". I have probably
> >said it myself often enough.
>
> T'isn't pondian. I don't see a problem with "I well understand..."
as shown in those reports from the US Congress in the above
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
I agree.
Those who object to anything reminiscent of an infi-split-tive might
prefer "I understand well what you mean".
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Ian Jackson
<m...@vex.net> writes
>Jeff Turner answers "Navi"
>>> Are these correct:
>>>
>>> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what you
>>> mean well.")
>> Yes
>>> 2- What you said was well understood. (instead of "What you said was
>>> understood well")
>> Yes
>>>
>>> 3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
>> No
>>> 4-The work was well done. (instead of: The work was done well.)
>> Yes
>>>
>>> 5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
>>> letter.)
>> No
>
>I disagree on #1.
#1 is fine by me. It's a well-understood English idiom.
A similar one is "I well remember .....".
But I feel that the most usual (and arguably, grammatically the most
correct) position for "well" is as in "I understand well what you mean".
--
Ian
Joe Fineman
> Are these correct:
>
> 1- I well understand what you mean. (instead of "I understand what
> you mean well.")
The first version is grammatical, but to my ear sounds rather stiff &
formal; if I imagine it in speech, I tend to supply an angry, almost
bullying tone. The second is awkward in that it looks or sounds at
first as if it contained "you mean well", and it requires both "mean"
& "well", which belong to different clauses, to have heavy stress.
("I understand your meaning well" would put "well" in the desired
emphatic position without that awkwardness.) If "what you mean" is to
be kept, I would make it "I understand well what you mean"; it is only
slightly abnormal, and the rhythm is much better than in "what you
mean well".
> 2- What you said was well understood. (instead of "What you said was
> understood well")
Those are both acceptable; the difference is that in the first the
emphasis is more on the understanding as a fact, and in the second
more on the quality of the understanding.
> 3-I well did my work. (instead of: I did my work well.)
I think the first is impossible in current English; "well" would have
to mean "indeed", as in No. 5.
> 4-The work was well done. (instead of: The work was done well.)
Like No. 2, with the additional possibility, in archaic English, that
in the first version "well" is a sentence adverb and the meaning is
"It is a good thing that the work was done" (cf. "Creatures like him
are well hanged").
> 5-I well received your letter. (instead of: I indeed received your
> letter.)
Archaic.
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net
||: Every scar is a birthmark. :||
Stan Brown
> Those who object to anything reminiscent of an infi-split-tive might
> prefer "I understand well what you mean".
My objection has nothing to do with a split infinitive, which this
quite clearly isn't. (Yes, I know hat some people hypercorrect
things that aren't split infinitives, and that's what you're
referring to, but that's not my motivation.)
For me it's that "well" as an adverb feels wrong before its verb. I
can't say why it does, but it does.
Pat Durkin
"Stan Brown" <the_sta...@fastmail.fm> wrote in message
news:MPG.2777f7596...@news.individual.net...
> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:37:24 +0000, Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
>
>> Those who object to anything reminiscent of an infi-split-tive
>> might
>> prefer "I understand well what you mean".
>
> My objection has nothing to do with a split infinitive, which this
> quite clearly isn't. (Yes, I know hat some people hypercorrect
> things that aren't split infinitives, and that's what you're
> referring to, but that's not my motivation.)
>
> For me it's that "well" as an adverb feels wrong before its verb. I
> can't say why it does, but it does.
>
>your ass up those stairs to bed!". Or, "You damned well know what'll
>happen to you if you don't sit down and shut up!"
Or, in another situation, "She pretty well behaves when she is dressed
up."
Ian Jackson
<the_sta...@fastmail.fm> writes
>On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:37:24 +0000, Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
>
>> Those who object to anything reminiscent of an infi-split-tive might
>> prefer "I understand well what you mean".
>
>My objection has nothing to do with a split infinitive, which this
>quite clearly isn't. (Yes, I know hat some people hypercorrect
>things that aren't split infinitives, and that's what you're
>referring to, but that's not my motivation.)
>
>For me it's that "well" as an adverb feels wrong before its verb. I
>can't say why it does, but it does.
>
On Google, "I well understand" gets about 95,400 results.
"I understand well" gets about 447,000 results
"I well remember" gets about 3,390,000 results.
"I remember well" gets about 17,600,000 results.
It would appear that after the verb wins hands down, but there are still
a lot of 'losers'.
But I suspect that there are many verbs where 'before' would not quite
sound right.
--
Ian