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Looking at forms in financial risk assessment, there is a question 'I'm happy investing a large proportion of my income / capital in a high-risk investment'. Is the '/' here being used as shorthand for '... proportion of either my income or my capital'; does it mean 'either / or' and is there a way to express it without using a '/'?
You: "What does that mean?" Compare the following: Me: "I'd use the word discombobulated, if I were you." You: "What does it mean?" Pretty similar, yes? Look a little more closely, however. The first pair indicates that you want to know what aspect of the word discombobulated applies to me, and not necessarily a definition of the word.
The confusion is drastically exacerbated by mathematicians, logicians and/or computer scientists who are very familiar with the differences between the logical operators AND, OR, and XOR. Namely, or in English can be either OR or XOR; and/or can only mean OR. As you may have noticed, all of the terms look similar which leads to the confusion in ...
To modern English speakers, they tend to have an old-fashioned tone, and by and by in particular has a biblical ring because of its use in English translations of the Bible and in Christian hymns. Share
The modern standard diphthongal pronunciation (/ðaʊ/) reflects a stressed form; compare Middle English þuu, þou (see Forms 1α). Regional forms, on the other hand, often reflect a reduced vowel (compare e.g. early modern English and regional tha); such reduction is seen earliest in the Old English enclitic forms -to, -ðo (see Forms 2a).
What I mean to say by that is that the button will remain disabled until one of the toggle buttons is turned on, and then remain enabled unless all toggle buttons are turned off. Pure "if" doesn't say exactly when the button is enabled, while pure "when" doesn't ensure that the button may be disabled after it's enabled once.
In this case, it doesn't exactly mean “belong to”, but it means that you have enough age, rather than meaning that you have age. The word have doesn't always work, though. Your second example illustrates this, with being of the same sex , which can be misinterpreted if “have” is used.
English is ambiguous when it comes to the use of "or." "Either/or" (for example, "Either take your turn or quit the game") implies one or the other but not both, but "or" by itself can mean either exclusive or non-exclusive. In this case it seems clear that it is not exclusive: use blue, or green, or both.
Both usages kind of mean mocking. If you take the piss out of --- , you're mocking them, having a laugh at their expense. In this usage, you're doing something that is so outrageous or ridiculous (not necessarily advantageous) that people may suspect you're mocking them when they find out, as Orbling said.
it can mean, "I'm listening and I understand what you're saying, please continue". with a questioning intonation, it could mean "Is that really what happened? I am surprised. Tell me more". with a vehement intonation, it could express strong sympathy or agreement that a course of action is correct: "I understand your feelings.