"to face Sth" or "to be faced with Sth"?

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Mehrgan

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Hi,
Is there any difference between the two forms of usage?

Ta!
 

Richard1

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When you say 'Sth' do you mean 'South'.

I've never heard the second variation but from a purely practical point of view there is no difference. You are either looking towards the south or the south is looking (or facing) you. In either case the relationship between you and south is the same.

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sunsunmoon

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sth

written abbreviation for something
 

Tdol

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Often not, but if you face something, it can mean that you are taking on the challenge rather than us being confronted with it, a meaning I don't see in the passive.
 

Richard1

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Eh! I am a native English speaker and been resident in England for some six decades and I can honestly say I have never ever seen 'something' abbreviated as you describe.

To me it us unintelligible and smacks of 'text speak' which is a no no in this forum.

If people want to ask questions in this forum they should at least have the courtesy to attempt to write in clear unabbreviated English for the very reason that this has cropped up.

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Mehrgan

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Eh! I am a native English speaker and been resident in England for some six decades and I can honestly say I have never ever seen 'something' abbreviated as you describe.

To me it us unintelligible and smacks of 'text speak' which is a no no in this forum.

If people want to ask questions in this forum they should at least have the courtesy to attempt to write in clear unabbreviated English for the very reason that this has cropped up.

Regards

Dear Richard1,
I meant to make the title concise so that other posters could get what the question was from the title itself. Well, I'm a nonnative speaker, and in some texts on grammar I've seen the abbreviated forms of Sb and Sth standing for Somebody and Something. However, I'll take your words and won't use the abbreviated forms any longer. :up:
Thank you again.
 

vgv8

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Dear Richard1,
I meant to make the title concise so that other posters could get what the question was from the title itself. Well, I'm a nonnative speaker, and in some texts on grammar I've seen the abbreviated forms of Sb and Sth standing for Somebody and Something. However, I'll take your words and won't use the abbreviated forms any longer. :up:
Thank you again.
I am also interested in concise writing understandable to all readers but I have never seen in my life such abbreviations and I read in English more than in my native language
 

5jj

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sb (somebody) and sth (something) are very common abbreviations in dictionaries and grammar books; I am surprised that some people have never seen them.

It is probably better not to use them in the body of a message in this forum, but I see no problem with using them in the title.
 

vgv8

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sb (somebody) and sth (something) are very common abbreviations in dictionaries and grammar books; I am surprised that some people have never seen them.

It is probably better not to use them in the body of a message in this forum, but I see no problem with using them in the title.
I use dictionaries in my everyday work but I have never seen sth there.
I'd rather have used it as "smth"

BTW, why do you think it is proper to use sth in this forum but not ppl?
The latter is common-knowledge widely used shortcut for "people" (and is pronounced similar)
 

Tdol

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sth and variations like sthg are commonly used in dictionaries, grammar books, etc, so they could be seen as standard language terminology. Ppl is used in SMS and chat, and generally people on this forum, like many others, find that chat abbreviations make a text harder to read. Also, this is a language forum, so many users prefer people to write in relatively normal English. You will see some abbreviations used, but chat and text language tends to get short shrift, so when posters start writing things like can u help me tnx!!!!, people ask them not to do it.
 

Richard1

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Hi,

I stand by my original point that these sorts of abbreviations are completely unknown to the average native English speaker. The fact that they may appear in some dictionaries (maybe to save space) does not make them grammatically correct. And ultimately if by using these you can't be understood by native speakers, what's the point in using them at all?

[/HobbyHorse] :)

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apex2000

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There is a misunderstanding here about the use of such abbreviations in dictionaries. Dictionaries, by their very nature, require lots and lots of space and pages; they are frequently printed on thinner paper to make them a bit easier to handle. When used, these abbreviations are frequently in parenthesis or italics to show that they are just that.

It is a surprise to me that there are those who use dictionaries regularly and yet have not seen this.:-o
 

Richard1

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It is a surprise to me that there are those who use dictionaries regularly and yet have not seen this.:-o

But maybe it's precisely because we have no need to use dictionaries regularly that this has passed us by. ;-)

I was intrigued by this subject matter and took a look at my dictionary of choice - Collins English Dictionary. This failed to list 'sth' in its list of abbreviations. I then decided to do some googling around in on-line dictionaries, and on the word 'abbreviations' itself, and to be honest I didn't actually find any dictionaries which admitted to using such an abbreviation.

I wonder if this is limited to dictionaries which learners of English tend to use.

Regards,
 

birdeen's call

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Be using them correct or not, there's certainly no need of capitalizing them. (Nobody seems to have said it explicitly yet.)
 
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apex2000

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I have not examined every dictionary but I can say I have seen it in Chambers (which claims to be THE authority on English today :lol:) and in a Collins French/English dictionary. Given that our cousins over the channel are well known for using three or four words where we use one then saving space is even more important!!
There is even the helpful - de qn from sb - explanation in the Collins indicating that the French are equally used to this type of abbreviation.
As for the online versions then space is not a problem.:)
 
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