[General] I have some questions, can someone help me please?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Gee.

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
I am reading an English book and there are some words and phrases that i couldn't understand.
Here they are:
1. 'I ain't a bore, i am a wh.re' (Sorry if this is inappropriate but i thought it's an idiom but i couldn't find its meaning.)

2. 'She remembered how the nightmares had come that night, of the woman begging her for help, her father's vicious face screaming into her own, dripping blood and gore.
Does the word her i wrote in bold refers to the woman who begging for help or the girl who remember the nightmare?

3. The girl calls his boyfriend 'dude' but he doesn't like it. There's a conversation:
G: Aww come on, you know you look like a 'dude'.
B:I've been surfing once and i sucked. Big time. I am not a dude.
What in earth does surfing have connection with dude? I mean, what does the boy mean here?

4. 'Word is out on you and your girlfriend.' Does the phrase word is out on you mean romours or something like that here?

5. 'But her brother had knocked her off her feet with her own need.' What does knock somebody her/his own feet?

6. What does 'get the game face on' mean?

7. 'This city hadn't been much but it had been an anchor of sorts.' What does anchor of sorts mean?


Sorry, i have a lot of question here. :s But i wanted to ask them in one go.. Sorry for bothering you guys.. :S
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Welcome to the forum, Gee. :hi:

We like to help when we can, but we do ask members to post one question at a time. Things can become hopelessy confused if different people respond to different questions in the same thread. Please delete questions #2 to #7 and start a separate thread for each one. Thank you.
1. 'I ain't a bore, i am a wh.re' (Sorry if this is inappropriate but [STRIKE]i[/STRIKE] I thought it's an idiom but [STRIKE]i[/STRIKE] I couldn't find its meaning.)
The speaker is suggesting that she (I assume that the speaker is female) is not boring - she sells herself. We need more context to know whether she sells sexual services, or merely sells some other form of service to anybody who will pay the price she asks.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
I am reading an English book and there are some words and phrases that I couldn't understand.
Here they are:
1. 'I ain't a bore, I am a wh.re' (Sorry if this is inappropriate but I thought it's an idiom but I couldn't find its meaning.)

2. 'She remembered how the nightmares had come that night, of the woman begging her for help, her father's vicious face screaming into her own, dripping blood and gore.
Does the word "her" I wrote in bold [STRIKE]refers[/STRIKE] refer to the woman who was begging for help or to the girl who remembers the nightmare?

3. The girl calls [STRIKE]his[/STRIKE] her boyfriend 'dude' but he doesn't like it. There's a conversation:
G: Aww come on, you know you look like a 'dude'.
B:I've been surfing once and I sucked. Big time. I am not a dude.
What in earth does surfing have connection with dude? I mean, what does the boy mean here?

4. 'Word is out on you and your girlfriend.' Does the phrase "word is out on you" mean rumours or something like that here?

5. 'But her brother had knocked her off her feet with her own need.' What does "knock somebody off her/his own feet" mean?

6. What does 'get the game face on' mean?

7. 'This city hadn't been much but it had been an anchor of sorts.' What does "anchor of sorts" mean?


Sorry, I have a lot of questions here but I wanted to ask them in one go. Sorry for bothering you guys. :S

Please see my amendments to your post above in red. Most importantly, please remember that you must capitalise the word "I" (first person singular) at all times.

1. I've never heard that phrase. I think perhaps the context might help with this one.
2. I think it refers to the girl who is remembering the nightmare.
3. A "dude" is a cool person. Perhaps in this couple's culture, someone who is good at surfing is known as a "dude". If the boy/man has tried surfing once and was no good at it, then he is not a "dude".
4. Again, I think context might help. It might mean "rumours" or it might simply mean that people now know that they are a couple. Or it could be something more threatening.
5. I can't make any sense of this one. I haven't heard the phrase and I'm confused by the sentence anyway. It seems to me that it should end "with his own need".
6. "Get your game face on" means to show that you are ready for something, whether it's an actual sporting competition, or a serious meeting or a court appearance (or many other things). It means you need to show the outside world that you are totally prepared for what is to come.
7. It means that the city may not have been terribly exciting or had much going for it, but at least it was home for a while.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Oh dear, I'm afraid that while I was constructing this huge response, 5jj posted his request that you separate the questions out into seven different threads. I'm quite happy to copy and paste (with the usual formatting problems) my responses into seven separate threads.
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
I posted my message while ems was writing hers, so ignore my request to delete some of your posts.

Please remember in future, however, to ask only one question in each thread.
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Oh dear, I'm afraid that while I was constructing this huge response, 5jj posted his request that you separate the questions out into seven different threads. I'm quite happy to copy and paste (with the usual formatting problems) my responses into seven separate threads.
Don't worry. We'll leave things as they are now.
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Words like "dude" (in their present sense) arose from the surfing culture in California.
 

billmcd

Key Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Don't worry. We'll leave things as they are now.

"Who's on first. What's on second. And I don't know's on third." :) Abbot & Costello:)
 

Gee.

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
I appreciate your help. The answers helped me to understand these things more.
Thank you for the amendments emsr2d2. :)
And I'll be careful about not to ask all of my questions in one thread from now on. :)

I'll tell my first question's context. A girl is insulting her classmate by saying: "Your biography is gonna go something about becoming a crack-wh.re, and either OD'ing under some fat, rutting taxi driver or from tetanus poisoning from the 'I ain't a bore, I'm a whore' tattoo you had to improve the view for the clients."
 
Last edited:

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
The phrase means exactly what the words say, that she is not a "bore" (someone who causes boredom in other people), that she is a "whore" (a woman who sells or is otherwise very loose with her sexuality).

You need to find better reading material.
 

Gee.

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
Thank you. :)
It's just a novel.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top