some man on the tube

Quang Hai · Apr 29, 2013

Hello Teachers,

I am reading an W. Trevor story - A Child's Play.
A wife is bursting into husband's office and found her husband is laying on parquet with his lover. The lover then scurried out. Below are what the couple's conversation afterwards.

‘She forgot her panties. She left her panties by the wastepaper basket when she scurried out.’ Wife said.
‘Look -’
‘She’s on the street without her panties. Some man on the tube'
‘Look, don’t be bitter.’

What is meaning of the underlined words. I checked up Dictionary and found one meaning for the tube is television. Did she mean she wish that girl will be taken by some cameraman? Thanks!

mayita1usa · Apr 29, 2013

Quang Hai said:
‘She forgot her panties. She left her panties by the wastepaper basket when she scurried out.’ Wife said.
‘Look -’
‘She’s on the street without her panties. Some man on the tube --'

In the UK, tube can also refer to the subway, underground train, metro, etc. I'm sure that's what it means here. You forgot to include the dash (--), which indicates that the sentence was cut off before it was finished. I have no idea what the author was thinking, but the whole sentence could be something such as, "Some man on the tube might see her and know she wasn't wearing panties...!"

Tdol · Apr 29, 2013

I agree- my interpretation of the extract was that she was on the underground/subway without underwear, not television. (I have not read the story)

SoothingDave · Apr 29, 2013

Isn't it odd to use "panties" and "tube" in the same passage? I would expect "knickers."

5jj · Apr 29, 2013

SoothingDave said:
Isn't it odd to use "panties" and "tube" in the same passage? I would expect "knickers."

'Panties' is odd in a BrE text.

mayita1usa · Apr 29, 2013

SoothingDave said:
Isn't it odd to use "panties" and "tube" in the same passage? I would expect "knickers."

Hm, that didn't even occur to me!
(And for those who might not understand, panties is an American word for women's underwear, while knickers is the British one - but tube is the BE word for underground railroad, while in the US we would say subway!)

bhaisahab · Apr 29, 2013

5jj said:
'Panties' is odd in a BrE text.

It's Irish.
Edit: The characters are middle class, conservative and of a certain period, 50s/60s I think.

5jj · Apr 29, 2013

bhaisahab said:
It's Irish.
Edit: The characters are middle class, conservative and of a certain period, 50s/60s I think.

That makes it less odd.

SoothingDave · Apr 29, 2013

I didn't know the Irish differed from BrE on this point.

5jj · Apr 29, 2013

SoothingDave said:
I didn't know the Irish differed from BrE on this point.

The almost universal acceptance of the term 'British English' for everything that is spoken in our two islands rather masks the fact that there are several distinct varieties there, with quite a few dialects within each. It could be argued that Irish English is as different from 'British English' as 'American English' is.

I have to confess that most English people don't realise this. They (or 'we', I should say) tend to think of Irish English as our language spoken in a quaint way with a few odd turns of phrase thrown in. That is if we think of it ath all ath all.

Tdol · Apr 29, 2013

Panties didn't sound odd to me- it's used as an alternative to knickers in some BrE circles, ones I have moved in.

5jj · Apr 29, 2013

Tdol said:
it's used as an alternative to knickers in some BrE circles, ones I have moved in.

I wouldn't publicise that if I were you.

bhaisahab · Apr 29, 2013

5jj said:
The almost universal acceptance of the term 'British English' for everything that is spoken in our two islands rather masks the fact that there are several distinct varieties there, with quite a few dialects within each. It could be argued that Irish English is as different from 'British English' as 'American English' is.

I have to confess that most English people don't realise this. They (or 'we', I should say) tend to think of Irish English as our language spoken in a quaint way with a few odd turns of phrase thrown in. That is if we think of it ath all ath all.

In fact, the way Irish English is constructed and spoken/written is heavily influenced by Irish Gaelic.
I've just discovered that this is all set out in the Wikipedia article. It seems that there is little point in knowing anything these days.;-)

5jj · Apr 29, 2013

bhaisahab said:
It seems that there is little point in knowing anything these days.;-)

some man on the tube

Quang Hai

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