Passive Vice

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
It's a pun on the grammatical term 'passive voice'.

Somebody else's vice (smoking) has a bad effect on non-smokers.

(Thank you for giving your thread a great title and for the link to your source.)
 
Last edited:

Tarheel

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Can I say (no dash here) "Here is the link [STRIKE]of[/STRIKE] to that article"?

See above. With the correct preposition, yes. Also, in your first post, "the article" would be better. "That" would work if you had previously mentioned an article.
 

Alexey86

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2018
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Russian
Home Country
Russian Federation
Current Location
Russian Federation
It's a pun on the grammatical term 'passive voice'.
Somebody else's vice (smoking) has a bad effect on non-smokers.

I just realized I've never heard anyone make a pun like "Vice president X is involved in vice" or something.
 
Last edited:

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
That's not really a pun.
 

Alexey86

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2018
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Russian
Home Country
Russian Federation
Current Location
Russian Federation
What is the right term?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
I would say that a vice-president being involved in vice is simply mildly ironic.
 

Dukul12345

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2020
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bengali; Bangla
Home Country
Bangladesh
Current Location
Bangladesh
I would say that a vice-president being involved in vice is simply mildly ironic.

What is the difference between "Vice" and "Vice president" you have mentioned?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Are you aware that "vice" has more than one meaning?
 

Glizdka

Key Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2019
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Polish
Home Country
Poland
Current Location
Poland
Not a teacher. Just passing by with a question.
------

Is "All vice presidents have their vices" correct?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Not a teacher. Just passing by with a question.
------

Is "All vice presidents have their vices" correct?

Yes. Note that, in BrE, the hyphenated "vice-president" is used.
 

jutfrank

VIP Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Yes. Note that, in BrE, the hyphenated "vice-president" is used.

It's preferred, in fact, at a ratio of about 2:1, according to the data in the British National Corpus. The American COCA has the ratio as 1:30.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top