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sho - 01 Mar 2008 12:51 GMT

Hi, everyone,

Nowadays, I study american novel.
but, some of words are very difficult to me.

Please let me know about this sentence.

"My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be
done 'twixt now and sunrise."

in this sentence, I don't know what "forth and back again" means. and
why the sentence use callest instead of

call.

if anyone knows that, please teach me.

thanks in advances.

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Einde O'Callaghan - 01 Mar 2008 18:24 GMT

sho schrieb:

> Hi, everyone,
>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> thanks in advances.

It's being deliberaltely old-fashioned. Up to the 17th century the
familiar second person singular was "thou callest" - the 3rd person
singular was "he calleth".

The phrase is "my journey forth and back again" - "my journey to my
destination and back to my starting point". We still use the phrase
"back and forth" (which you should be able to find in a good dictionary)
- meaning backwards and forwards - but the word "forth" isn't normally
used so much on its own in this sense in standard English of either the
British or American variety - although there are phrases like "from this
day forth" = "from now on".

What on earth are you reading? It sounds like a historical novel - or
perhaps a fantasy novel - this genre often uses very old-fashioned
grammar and vocabulary in order to create a mystical or mythical atmosphere.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

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sho - 07 Mar 2008 05:37 GMT

On 3월2일, 오전3시24분, Einde O'Callaghan <einde.ocallag...@planet-
interkom.de> wrote:

> sho schrieb:
>
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
>
> - 따온 텍스트 보기 -

I really appreciate your response.

thanks to you, I completely understood it.

thanks a lot.

god bless you.

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / March 2008

Please, let me know.