Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Also, en masse refers to numerous people or objects (a crowd or a mountain of things). In colloquial Québécois French, it means "a bunch" (as in il y avait du monde en masse, "there was a bunch of people"). en suite as a set (not to be confused with ensuite, meaning "then"). Can refer, in particular, to hotel rooms with attached private ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Expressions such as jump on the bandwagon, pull strings, and draw the line all represent their meaning independently in their verbs and objects, making them compositional. In the idiom jump on the bandwagon , jump on involves joining something and a 'bandwagon' can refer to a collective cause, regardless of context.
(A number of lexical expressions with similar meaning also exist, such as to be on the point of (doing something).) Use of modal verbs with future meaning, to combine the expression of future time with certain modality: "I must do this" (also mun in Northern English dialect); "We should help him"; "I can get out of here"; "We may win"; "You ...
Some reference points appear more suitable for use in relative future than others. The following are universally attested: Future relative to a past reference point is formed using the past tense of the copula, e.g. "I was going to eat dinner" (instead of the present "I am going to eat dinner"). This may express past intention ("I was going to ...
Absolute tense means the grammatical expression of time reference (usually past, present or future) relative to "now" – the moment of speaking. In the case of relative tense, the time reference is construed relative to a different point in time, the moment being considered in the context.
Les plus jeunes de la famille ne savent pas grand-chose de leurs traditions, que n’évoque aucun livre, aucune photographie. Elles forment une seule et même histoire, transmise oralement de génération en génération. Et pourtant, ils connaissent tout cela, la sorcellerie, la magie, puri puri, mura mura dikana, kumo, sanguma.
A phraseme, also called a set phrase, fixed expression, multiword expression (in computational linguistics), or idiom, [1] [2] [3] [citation needed] is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is selectionally constrained [clarification needed] or restricted by linguistic convention such that it is not freely chosen. [4]