[General] get one's breath

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to tell me whether I am right with my interpretation of the expression in bold in the following sentence?

Lanny waited until he got his breath and could speak normally, then he approached the policeman.

get one’s breath = catch one’s breath/ recover one.s breath

Thanks for your efforts.

Regards,

V

 

[BobK]

Yes, although it sounds a bit odd to me; I'd've said he waited until he got his breath back. (You need to 'get your breath back' after you've 'got out of breath'.)

b

 

[Nightmare85]

I'd've

:shock::shock:
I've never read such a thing in my life :-o
Is it really acceptable and correct?
Of course I know its meaning ("I would have"), but it looks really strange to me...

Cheers!

 

[emsr2d2]

:shock::shock:
I've never read such a thing in my life :-o
Is it really acceptable and correct?
Of course I know its meaning ("I would have"), but it looks really strange to me...

Cheers!

It looks odd because we very rarely use two apostrophes in the same word. However, it's certainly the correct written version for the contraction of "I would have" which we use in spoken English A LOT!

I'd've thought you'd've been more careful!
If I'd known you were coming, I'd've baked a cake!

 

[BobK]

:shock::shock:
I've never read such a thing in my life :-o
Is it really acceptable and correct?
Of course I know its meaning ("I would have"), but it looks really strange to me...

Cheers!

That's me! (There is method in my madness. I know the convention about not using two apostrophes in one word, but I know that ELT students tend to over-pronounce this contraction: there's no /ʊ/ in it, and no /æ/ .)

Sorry if I startled you ;-)

b

 

[Nightmare85]

there's no /ʊ/ in it, and no /æ/ .)

Sorry if I startled you ;-)

b

No problem
Okay, thanks for the explanation.
But what do you mean by: "there's no /ʊ/ in it, and no /æ/." ?

P.S. I still prefer, "That's I!" :-D

Cheers!

 

[BobK]

...
But what do you mean by: "there's no /ʊ/ in it, and no /æ/." ?

...

As emsr2d2 said, "I would have" is reduced to either /'aɪdv/ or - informally - /'aɪdə/; many teachers - those that use the IPA at all ;-) - would put a schwa between the /d/ and the /v/, but in my view the /v/ is realized as what is called 'a syllabic consonant' - the voicing of the /v/ follows directly on from the voicing of the /d/ without any intervening schwa (which, for fans of the Goons, makes it sound like Bluebottle [the character, that is, not the word... oh dear, I never should've started this...])


b