KuaiLe
Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2006
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- Taiwan
- Current Location
- Taiwan
I'm reading The Muse by Jessie Burton. The background is London in 1967 and the protagonist is a girl from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. She works in London as a typist. Her employer asks her if she speaks French and their conversation goes:
‘You speak French?’
‘No.’
‘To have and to be confuse me greatly. I thought people spoke French in Trinidad?’
I hesitated. ‘Only a few of our forebears were indoors, speaking with the French,’ I said.
I'm confused about the grammar of "to have and to be confuse" here. Does it simply mean that she's confused? If so, why would she speak in this way? Is it a way to stress your feelings?
I'm even more confused about what "indoors" means here. All the dictionaries I looked up say that indoor or indoors means inside a building, but this definition just doesn't fit this context. What does "indoors" mean? Can anybody give me some clues?
‘You speak French?’
‘No.’
‘To have and to be confuse me greatly. I thought people spoke French in Trinidad?’
I hesitated. ‘Only a few of our forebears were indoors, speaking with the French,’ I said.
I'm confused about the grammar of "to have and to be confuse" here. Does it simply mean that she's confused? If so, why would she speak in this way? Is it a way to stress your feelings?
I'm even more confused about what "indoors" means here. All the dictionaries I looked up say that indoor or indoors means inside a building, but this definition just doesn't fit this context. What does "indoors" mean? Can anybody give me some clues?