Expressions

[Interventizio]

Hi

I have some doubts concerning some expressions:

- can I use "liable to" or "supsceptible of" for good things (not diseases and so on). Ex.: "liable to getting gratification from playing videogames". And do they require the "ing" form if followed by verbs?
- Can I use "alongside" as synonym of "together with". Ex.: stats showed that alongside 20% of people smoking cigars, there were also a 40% of non-smoking people".
- Can i use "where" "creatively", meaning not referring to place? Ex.: "where a lot of people were smoking, other were not" meaning: "yes ok there were many people smoking, I give you that, but many weren't". And also: "a game where you play Santa Claus".
- Can you use simply "compensate a lack of..." instead of "compensate for a lack of..."?
- Do I use "farewell" (arcaic) when I meet somebody or when I leave them?
Thank you very much in advance also for a partial response.:-D

 

[fighting spirit]

1.Liable for getting gratification or liable to get gratification
2. Yes, alongside is fine, but I would change the word order - 20% of people alongside
3.Yes, you could use where, meaning the situation in which something happens
4. No, compensate is followed by the preposition for. So, compensate for or compensate sb for sth
5. Farewell is used to say goodbye to somebody

 

[bertietheblue]

Hi

I have some doubts concerning some expressions:

- can I use "liable to" or "supsceptible of" for good things (not diseases and so on). Ex.: "liable to getting gratification from playing videogames". And do they require the "ing" form if followed by verbs?
- Can I use "alongside" as synonym of "together with". Ex.: stats showed that alongside 20% of people smoking cigars, there were also a 40% of non-smoking people".
- Can i use "where" "creatively", meaning not referring to place? Ex.: "where a lot of people were smoking, other were not" meaning: "yes ok there were many people smoking, I give you that, but many weren't". And also: "a game where you play Santa Claus".
- Can you use simply "compensate a lack of..." instead of "compensate for a lack of..."?
- Do I use "farewell" (arcaic) when I meet somebody or when I leave them?
Thank you very much in advance also for a partial response.:-D

1. No. liable is almost always used for undesirable events, never for desirable events, occasionally for events which have a neutral outcome. 'The town was liable to flooding/floods' - note: to + noun. 'The town was liable to suffer from earthquakes' - note: to + infinitive. 'Susceptible to + noun' has almost the same meaning as 'liable to + noun'. Forget 'susceptible of' in the context of something undesirable happening.
2. forget 'alongside' in this context - it's wrong. I'm not sure of the sense of the sentence given but could it be simply 'statistics show that 20% of people smoke cigars, whilst 40% are non-smokers'?
3. use of 'where' - yes, it can be used as a relative adverb to mean 'in which' (as in your example, 'a game where/in which ...). In your other example, 'where' is incorrect. Here there's a contrast so 'Whilst/Although a lot of people were smoking, others ...'
4. 'compensate for'
5. farewell = goodbye. As you say it's somewhat old-fashioned as an exclamation of parting although it used to be very common. if I ever saw it in modern speech instead of 'goodbye' (or other parting words) I would expect the speaker/writer to be using it knowingly, possibly for comic effect.

 

[Interventizio]

Thank you both

What would be then a correct way of conveying the meaning expressed by "liable to", only used to indicate something positive, as in the example of the videogames I gave: "Young people are more liable (wrong) to get gratification from playing videogames"?

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you both

What would be then a correct way of conveying the meaning expressed by "liable to", only used to indicate something positive, as in the example of the videogames I gave: "Young people are more liable (wrong) to get gratification from playing videogames"?

Young people are more likely to get gratification from playing videogames than from [doing something else].