Dripping from aside

[lupicatulum]

Context of another hard phrase to explain:

- What do you do?
- I teach Engllish.
- How much do you earn?
- X per month, but I'm also a football trainer to the kids from my school, and that's where I earn another X/10 per month.
- Why do you bother with that peanuts?
- Well, it's nice to have something dripping form aside.

What phrase would you use for the green part?

 

[GoesStation]

I guess you've translated an idiom from your own language. Can you describe in other words what "something dripping from aside" means here?

 

[AirbusA321]

You could say: Well, it's nice to make some extra money.

 

[lupicatulum]

Well, that's the problem, I don't know how to describe it.

So, it's about the money. When having an income, but it's not your main income... It's just something that's pouring in your pocket from aside (from another small job, or some small criminal activity, or...). It's not a big money, it's not the money that you necessarily need, but it's nice to have something dripping from aside; you never know if you might need it sometimes. With that money you can buy things that you wouldn't if you wouldn't have it, but it won't help you if you loose your primary job.

Or, lets say this. I'm a teacher, but I'm also a web designer (for real). On some websites I run Google Ads. It's not big money, maybe $20 per month, but it's nice to have something dripping from aside.

 

[emsr2d2]

Extra income like that is sometimes called "pin money", going back to the days when women would take on tailoring work to add to the family income. Otherwise, I'd just say "It's a good way to make a little extra money".

 

[GoesStation]

You might say ​it's good to have a little something extra.

 

[lupicatulum]

Thank you all. I think "It's nice to have little something extra" is the best fit. :up:

Nobody's correcting me in this thread? I guess I'm just better and better... :roll:

 

[GoesStation]

Thank you all. I think "It's nice to have a little something extra" is the best fit. :up:

Nobody's correcting me in this thread? I guess I'm just getting better and better....

See above.

My last correction is one more dot at the end. Three dots make an ellipsis, indicating that text has been left out. The fourth is required to end the sentence.

 

[teechar]

Try:
It's great to have a nice little earner on the side.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nice-little-earner

You might also want to learn/use the word "sideline"; e.g.,
It's great to have a sideline like that.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sideline

 

[lupicatulum]

But I'm not GETTING better and better, I AM better and better.

Just kiddin'....

But I don't understand the fourth dot. I mean, I understand what you described, but...it has no sense....

If I understood the rule correctly, is the sentece above correct? Three dots behind "but", but four dots at the end?

 

[emsr2d2]

We don't put a full stop after an ellipsis. It should just be three dots for an ellipsis. However, there was no need for one at all after "I'm just getting better and better". It's a complete sentence.

 

[GoesStation]

But I'm not GETTING better and better, I AM better and better.

Just kiddin'....

But I don't understand the fourth dot. I mean, I understand what you described, but...it [STRIKE]has[/STRIKE] makes no sense....

If I understood the rule correctly, is the sentence above correct? Three dots behind "but", but four dots at the end?

Yes. Using ellipses is easy: three dots within a sentence, four at the end. There is, of course, an exception: if the sentence you're eliding ends in a question mark or apostrophe, use that mark after your ellipsis. For example, I'll quote your last sentence above, with an ellipsis: "Three dots behind 'but'...?"

As a bonus, I also illustrated the rule for nested quotation marks.

 

[lupicatulum]

Try:
It's great to have a nice little earner on the side.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nice-little-earner

The definition says it is something that you can make money from easilly, but sideline does not necesserilly have to be easy. (If I understand all of this right.) So, when I finish a website, and then I do barely anything, yet each month $20 from Google dripps into my wallet, yes, it's a nice little earner. But if I go every afternoon to my neighbour to do a masonary work, I do it because it's nice to have a little something extra, but it is not a nice little earner.

Correct?

You might also want to learn/use the word "sideline"; e.g.,
It's great to have a sideline like that.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sideline

Exactly the word I need.

Thank you.

 

[lupicatulum]

GS and emsr, does that mean that there is a difference between American English and British English regarding the three and/or four dots?

Or GS is wrong? (I dare not to say that emsr could be wrong. )

 

[lupicatulum]

Well... I'm in an awkward position now...

But I just remembered that somebody wrote to me a few posts above that there is no need for three dots, since the sentence was finished (like in the first sentence of this post). True, but three dots have one more meaning. Since early 90s, we use three dots in chat(ting) to contextualise pause! So... You know... Pause... Just like when you're talking and making pauses.

(And forum is nothing more then very, very slow good old IRC. )

 

[Rover_KE]

The only time I use an ellipsis is when I am quoting somebody else's text and omitting irrelevant words.

In my own writing I always use a dash instead.

You don't need to stress out about whether to use a fourth dot or not. The worst that can happen is that one of the few people to whom it matters will think 'He should have put four dots there' or 'Oh no! He's used one dot too many!'

Nobody's ever been downgraded from a class one degree to a class two for miscounting the dots or had the grammar police smashing his door down at 5am and dragging him off in chains.

 

[lupicatulum]

:-D :-D :-D

Thank you for the support, Rover.

 

[SoothingDave]

We can talk of a side income.

 

[lupicatulum]

That's probably also the term that would fit, but I'm interested more in unformal terms, expressions, idioms.... When you present information to students, or masses, they more easily grip those information if you talk their language. Language of the masses; not strict, formal, letarary languge.

Help with the green, please?

 

[GoesStation]

The verb grasp works there: When you present information to students, they grasp it ["information" is an uncountable noun, thus the singular "it"] more readily if you speak their language.

I left out "masses" because I couldn't guess what you meant. I tend to associate that word, when applied to groups of people, with Marxist thought, the old Eastern bloc, and Maoism; I would use it only very carefully in a contemporary setting.

I replaced "easily" because readily adds the idea of quickness to the ease which easily​ represents.