Meaning of Seek ?

I want to check my understanding on the meaning of seek. Please guide me, if somewhere I am wrong.

A) One of the meanings of seek is to try to obtain.

1) If I say that I sought permission from the Principal to go early.

Does it mean that I tried to get permission either by submitting an application to the Principal requesting him to allow me to go early or requested him verbally to allow me to go early.

B) Another meaning of seek is to request for some thing

2) I am writing this letter to seek your appointment.

Does it mean that I am writing this letter to request for your appointment.

C) Can another meaning be to make demand for something. At this moment I do not remember the example to quote here. Sometime while reading a newspaper or a magazine, I came across the sentences in which If I replace sought with demanded, it sounds right to me.

Over all, meaning of seek implies that we are looking for something either by way of a request(this request can be through phone/letter/verbal etc.) or by making an effort or by making a demand by doing something eg. For example by protesting etc..

Regards

Rajan

The free dictionary should provide the answers that you seek :

seek - definition of seek by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Regards
R21

Thanks for your response. But Why do you think so, after reading my this thread, that I had not consulted dictionary before I posted my question. I am just expecting you to check my understanding on the word - seek through my above posting.

Regards
Rajan

Route21 said:

The free dictionary should provide the answers that you seek :

seek - definition of seek by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Regards
R21

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rajan said:

I want to check my understanding on the meaning of seek. Please guide me, if somewhere I am wrong.

A) One of the meanings of seek is to try to obtain.

1) If I say that I sought permission from the Principal to go early.

Does it mean that I tried to get permission either by submitting an application to the Principal requesting him to allow me to go early or requested him verbally to allow me to go early. Yes.

B) Another meaning of seek is to request for some thing

2) I am writing this letter to seek your appointment. No, this is not correct.

Does it mean that I am writing this letter to request for your appointment. See above.

C) Can another meaning be to make demand for something. At this moment I do not remember the example to quote here. Sometime while reading a newspaper or a magazine, I came across the sentences in which If I replace sought with demanded, it sounds right to me. That's possible.



Rajan

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Bhai.

Thanks for your reply. I would be grateful if you explain why Point B is wrong.

Secondly, out of curiosity I am asking another question. In your reply, you have written in point B that No, this is not correct. Can double negatives come in a sentence. I have read somewhere that two negatives in a sentence make the sentence affirmative.

Regards

Rajan

bhaisahab said:

Bhai.

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rajan said:

In your reply, you have written in point B that No, this is not correct. Can double negatives come in a sentence. I have read somewhere that two negatives in a sentence make the sentence affirmative.

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There is no double negative here. We frequently give an short answer and then expand it:

Yes, that is correct.
No, that is not correct.

Note that it some languagues agreement with a negative statement can begin with an affirmative - Yes, that is not the case. We do not do this in English.

Isn't there a difference between AME and BrE in the interpretation of a double negative?

Some years ago, on trying to determine the successful bidder for a contract, it was unclear whether all the bidders had included/excluded a certain item in their bids.

Under the bidding rules, at that stage, we were only able to ask them a "yes/no" question, which was framed/approved by the legal dept. The question read something like: "Please confirm (yes/no answers only) that you have not ......". The American contractors answered one way, the British the opposite way - yes we confirm vs no we haven't! Duh! So much for the best laid plans of mice and men.

Regards
R21

Although the sentences:

"Yes, that is correct." and
"No, that is not correct."

are perfectly correct English in their own right, it may help a non-NES if they treat them as if they were written and read as:

"Yes. That is correct."
"No. That is not correct."

Regards
R21

Route21 said:

The question read something like: "Please confirm (yes/no answers only) that you have not ......". The American contractors answered one way, the British the opposite way - yes we confirm vs no we haven't!

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I think that was badly framed by the legal department. 'Have you ...?' is not problem. 'Can you confirm that you have (not) ...? should also be no problem. 'Please confirm that you have not ...' leaves room for doubt.

In B2 of the original post, as an NES but not an English specialist/teacher:

"I am writing this letter to seek an appointment with you." would work, for me.

Regards
R21

Route21 said:

In B2 of the original post, as an NES but not an English specialist/teacher:

"I am writing this letter to seek an appointment with you." would work, for me.

Regards
R21

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2)
"to seek your appointment" would be acceptable to me. If I, for example, were writing a letter to a military academy in the US, I could be trying you get you appointed (to become a student in that school) to that academy. In practice, generally only members of Congress write such letters.

5jj said:

I think that was badly framed by the legal department..

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We all missed the possible misinterpretation - not just the legal guys - but it does show that lawyers can be human at times! :lol::lol:

Regards
R21

Route21 said:

... lawyers can be human at times!

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I had begun to think that you were a reliable member of this forum. I am beginning to doubt it now.