 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009One cannot be too hopeful.
Dear all, How would you read the captioned sentence: one cannot be too hopeful? Which of the following answers would you choose? 1. It always mean "one should not be too hopeful", regardless of context? 2. It always mean "one cannot be hopeful enough", regardless of context? 3. No.1 is the mostly likely answer , but No.2 is also possible. 4. Both No.1 and No.2 are equally possible. It depends on the context. Thanks for your help! Both No.1 and No.2 are equally possible. It depends on the context. If spoken, context, expression and tone of voice would provide clues. > Both No.1 and No.2 are equally possible. It depends on the context. > > If spoken, context, expression and tone of voice would provide clues. Thank you, Contrex. Does anyone else have any other opinion or comment? > Both No.1 and No.2 are equally possible. It depends on the context. > > If spoken, context, expression and tone of voice would provide clues. Thank you, Contrex. Does anyone else have any other opinion or comment? > Both No.1 and No.2 are equally possible. It depends on the context. > > If spoken, context, expression and tone of voice would provide clues. Contrex, Thank you for your answer. Does anyone else have anything to add? > Dear all, > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Thanks for your help! I've often heard "You can't be too careful," meaning that no matter how careful you are, it's not too much. I've never heard "You can't be too hopeful," but if the idea is similar, it would mean "Have as much hope as you can (because it's never too much)."  SignatureMarshall Price of Miami marshallprice@att.net http://marshallprice.wordpress.com |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.