Help with English: "Maybe, perhaps, possibly, probably"

[Fraggle Rocker]

I downloaded a movie called "Lesbian Vampire Killers." Thinking it was about lesbian vampires that go around killing people. But it turned out to be about people going around killing lesbian vampires. Is it only the fault of the title being ambiguous or is it mine for being illiterate?

I thought it was about lesbians who kill vampires.

[Saint]

The word "expenses" is plural or singular?

[Fraggle Rocker]

The word "expenses" is plural or singular?

Please practice putting words in the correct order. You know how important that is in Chinese, so it should be obvious to you that it is also important in English, even if not quite as important as in your language.

Is the word "expenses" singular or plural?

In a question, the verb "be" (am/is/are/was/were) or the verb "do" (does/did) or sometimes the verb "have" (has/had) must be at the beginning of the sentence.

Are you happy? -- Do you speak English? -- Have you ever traveled to England? -- Is the word "expenses" plural?

Answer: Plural. It is possible to have one expense, making "expense" a countable noun that requires an article.

I recorded several expenses on my trip to Los Angeles. One particuarly large expense was transportation, since it's such a large city. An expense that I would rather have done without was parking fees. It seems that there is no free parking anywhere in California.

But "expense" can also be a mass noun like water, love and generosity.

Our company incurred great expense (not "a great expense") when we tried to enter the cat food market. But it was wasted money because the effort was not successful.

But if the word has an S, "expenses," then it a countable noun and it is plural.

In general, it's safe to assume that if a word exists in both forms, with the S and without the S, then the S form is plural. There are a few exceptions because English is full of exceptions, but your best tactic is to assume that the S form is plural.

If the word only occurs in the S form, then it might be singular: physics.

And of course you have to remember that many English words are inflected according to the rules of their original language: thesis/theses, forum/fora, cherub/cherubim, phenomenon/phenomena, locus/loci, beau/beaux, formula/formulae.

[Saint]

I'd just come back from Beijing, the living expenses there is higher than Kuala Lumpur.

[Fraggle Rocker]

I'd just come back from Beijing, the living expenses there is higher than Kuala Lumpur.

I have (or I've) just come back from Beijing. [period] Living expenses there are ["expenses" is plural] higher than in Kuala Lumpur.

Better: I just came back from...
The cost of living is higher...

[Saint]

I found that the living expenses in Beijing are higher than those in Kuala Lumpur.

Okay?

[Fraggle Rocker]

I found that the living expenses in Beijing are higher than those in Kuala Lumpur. Okay?

It's understandable and the grammar is correct. However, the choice of words is a little off. To amplify on what I said earlier:

The phrase "living expenses" is used in a micro context, referring to one person or a family.

"My living expenses were much greater after I went off to college and started going out in the evenings with my friends, than they were when I was living back home with my brother and we were very frugal."
"My family's living expenses increased dramatically when my little brother and sister started school so our mother was able to go back to work. As an attorney for a prominent law firm, she needed to buy more expensive clothes, drive a nice-looking car, entertain clients in fancy restaurants, be seen at the opera, and join the country club."

You're speaking in a macro context, referring to the whole population of a city: Beijing vs. Kuala Lumpur. In this case, the proper expression is "the cost of living," which is a statistical average of the annual cost of food, housing, transportation, and other expenses for all of the residents of the city.

"The cost of living is very high in New York City because land is scarce so rents are astronomical, and also because this means there isn't much space for parking cars so everyone has to use taxicabs which are far more expensive than other modes of transportation."
"The cost of living in small rural communities is very low because land is cheap so rents are low and it's even possible for people of modest means to own their own homes; also because parking is free; and also because people tend to be less ostentatious and more practical there and drive much older, cheaper cars."

[Saint]

The parents of six children who died in a house fire in Derby have been charged with their murders and are due to appear before magistrates later.

charged with their murders = can I say "charged with the crime of murder" ?

[Saint]

President Barack Obama has called Mitt Romney, his challenger in November's election, to congratulate him on winning the Republican nomination.

The rival campaigns exchanged well wishes, a day after Mr Romney's easy victory in the Texas primary.

exchanged well wishes = it is between you and your enemy or friend?

[Fraggle Rocker]

charged with their murders = can I say "charged with the crime of murder"?

Yes, but it doesn't mean the same thing; it doesn't convey as much detail. The original version says specifically that six murder charges have been filed against them, one for each child who died. This is important in criminal law, because the prosecution only has to convict them in one crime in order for them to be punished for murder, which in a few U.S. states can bring the death penalty, and in all of them can bring life imprisonment. (Depending on whether it's first-degree murder, which means either that it was premeditated or that the death occurred during the commission of a felony.)

To convict them of six murders would encourage the judge to give them the maximum legal penalty. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder (not premeditated, or resulting incidentally from committing a crime that is not a felony) may be twenty years in prison, so if you're convicted of six of them you could face a total sentence of 120 years.

exchanged well wishes = it is between you and your enemy or friend?

Either. It can be between any two parties.

BTW, this is a typographical error. "Well-wish" should contain a hyphen. Otherwise it sounds like it's referring to a wish you make while tossing a coin into a wishing well. "Well-wisher" is the more common word, referring to someone who wishes you well, in other words who gives you a perfunctory greeting in public, even though privately they may actually hate you, which is how Romney and Obama feel about each other. In other words, it's a formality like asking, "How are you?" when you really don't care.

[Saint]

1. Do you know where Walmart is?
2. Do you know where is Walmart?

Both are correct?

[Fraggle Rocker]

1. Do you know where Walmart is? -- 2. Do you know where is Walmart? -- Both are correct?

No. You only put the verb first in a question. So "Do you know...?" is correct. But "where is Walmart" is not a question. It would be a question if you simply ask, "Where is Walmart?" but that is not how you phrased your question. You're asking me if I know where Walmart is; you're not asking me where Walmart is. So the correct form is, "Do you know where Walmart is?"

It's just like asking, "Do you know why Japan started a war against the USA?" You don't say, "Do you know why did Japan start a war against the USA?"

And, BTW:

Both are correct?

This is also wrong. You're asking a question, so the verb must come first: "Are both correct?"

We sometimes speak this way in slang or informal speech. But you must not try to copy that kind of usage, because you won't know when it's okay and when it's inappropriate. Correct grammar is always appropriate.

Obviously in many questions you can't put the verb first. We don't say, "Went you to school yesterday?" (Although that is exactly what they say in most other European languages.) So we say "Did you go to school yesterday." We add an auxiliary verb and let it serve as the audible question mark.

We don't have a word like ma in Chinese, which is exactly an audible question mark.

[Saint]

Do you know the location of the nearest Walmart?

ok?

[Saint]

Can you tell me where Walmart is?

ok?

[Fraggle Rocker]

Do you know the location of the nearest Walmart? -- ok?

Well sure, it's good English and no one will misunderstand you. But it's very formal and no one talks that way when walking up to a stranger and asking for help.

Besides, a wise-ass would respond, "Yes, I do," and walk away. You didn't actually ask him to tell you the location, you're just wondering if he knows.

Can you tell me where Walmart is? -- ok?

This is better. It's polite without being formal. It's also quite common to ask, "Can you tell me how to get to Walmart?" since you don't just want to know where it is, but which road to take to find it.

And let me warn you, if you ever think of asking this question in America. Two people will hear you ask and they'll both start answering. And they'll give you different answers! The reason is that in many cities there is more than one Walmart and you might be more-or-less equally distant from both of them! Then they'll start arguing with each other about which one is closer, or which one is easier to drive to!

Grammar lesson: Notice that I said, "which one is closer," not "which one is closest." When there are only two things, one is "the better one," not "the best one." You use the comparative form, -er, not the superlative form, -est

[Saint]

I would say "Can you tell me how to get to the nearest Walmart?"

Maybe today people would ask "Can you tell me the GPS position of the nearest Walmart?"

[Saint]

Expectations for U.S. corporate earnings are deflating fast as the euro zone crisis deepens and economic data around the world disappoints.

Expectations deflating = means hopeless?

crisis deepens = situation worsens

[Fraggle Rocker]

Expectations deflating = means hopeless?

Inflation is a word that's usually used with balloons. So if your expectations are inflating it means that they are growing: you have more expectations than you did before. So if they're deflating, it means that you have fewer expectations than before. Not "hopeless," just "less hopeful."

"Inflation" has also been co-opted as a term in economics. Prices are inflated if it takes more money to buy an item this year than it took to buy the exact same item last year. People make the mistake of assuming that the item actually is the exact same when it's not. For example, they talk about the inflation in the price of automobiles since the 1950s. They don't remember that most of the automobiles of the 1950s didn't have safety belts, turn signals, outside rear-view mirrors, radial tires, air conditioning, automatic transmissions, power steering, power brakes, fuel injection, electronic ignition, adjustable bucket seats, air bags, traction control, stability control, stereo radios, tape and CD players, impact-absorbing bumpers, etc.

crisis deepens = situation worsens

A crisis is something bad, and metaphorically "bad" is considered "down" while "good" is considered "up." A crisis is not just a "situation," but something dire which will have ruinous consequences if it cannot be mitigated, deferred or reversed. So if a crisis deepens, that means it is "going further downward" toward a terrible conclusion. It's time to start taking drastic measures to prevent it from going all the way to its conclusion.

[Saint]

Speculation has been rising that central banks will take more action to combat escalating debt problems in Europe and slower global growth. Bernanke, in testimony Thursday, said the Fed was ready to take action but gave no hint of imminent steps.
His remarks were seen as offsetting more supportive comments from other Fed members in the last 24 hours, but still leaving the door open for more action at the Fed's next meeting on June 19-20.
"Bernanke threw traders a curveball. After his vice chair made it seem like QE was a foregone conclusion, he really messed people up. We tried to shake that off, but there was a lack of follow-through and we lost momentum," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst with PFG Best in Chicago.

offsetting more supportive comments = say something contrary?

throw curveball = ?

messed people up = confused people?

[Fraggle Rocker]

offsetting more supportive comments = say something contrary?

"Supporting comments" from the other members of the Federal Reserve are comments that support the group's consensus that the European central banks will be able to solve their own problems without outside help. Bernanke, on the other hand, hinted that the USA may have to "take more action to combat (Europe's) escalating debt problems." This offsets the consensus and suggests that outside help will in fact be needed. (It's already been noted that European bankers have been making discreet inquiries in Brazil, which has very quietly grown to become the world's sixth largest economy!)

throw curveball = ?

That's a baseball term. The pitcher puts a lot of spin on the ball so that just as it approaches the batter the aerodynamics cause it to veer off in an odd direction, making it difficult for him to hit it at all, much less powerfully. So "to throw someone a curve ball (or curveball)" means to surprise them with something that will be difficult to respond to, when they thought things were going to be easy.

messed people up = confused people?

This is pretty poor use of the language and it doesn't speak well for Mr. Flynn's judgment, intelligence or communication skill. To mess something up means to disorganize it, damage it, or in some way impair its usability. To mess up a person could mean to confuse him, to block his progress, or even to harm him physically. This particular slang term does not belong in the financial section of a newspaper. The sports page, perhaps.