“Do you want to do this thing with me?”

“I’m down.”

“I’m up for it.”

      • Wolf Link 🐺
        link
        fedilink
        127 months ago

        On the other hand, “knocked down” and “knocked up” have drastically different meanings, which is a little confusing for foreigners sometimes. =P

      • The Pantser
        link
        fedilink
        57 months ago

        Pissing the night away is also a double entendre, meaning wasting time or literally pissing all night from drinking.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    267 months ago

    As a non native speaker, this messed me up for years

    I always heard about “being up” for something, so I logically assumed that being down meant the inverse. Even more that “feeling down” usually means not being able to do things.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      57 months ago

      Not to confuse you more, but with your phrasing you are correct.

      If you’re up for it, or being up for something, you are interested. Similarly, if you’re down for something, or you’d be down for it, you are interested.

      But if you are feeling down, you are not up for it.

      The former 2, the verb is the action of being ready.

      In the latter, the verb is feeling and down is the state.

      For example, despite me feeling down I’m down to go out and party tonight.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      17 months ago

      It’s not about the crest or the trough. It’s about the motion of the ocean baby.

      Up and down are both disturbed, ya dig? It means the thing made an impression on you. Got under your skin, gave you the itch, it’s bugging you, eating at you, lighting a fire under your ass, putting you in the hot seat.

      No more smooth sailing. Buy the ticket, take the ride, you know? Get this idea off the ground, get up and bounce. You know, jump around.

      Get up, get up, and get down.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    20
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    “Hey you want some potato chips?”

    • “Potato chip sounds good” => Yes please
    • “I’m good” => No thanks

    Messed me up all the time first time came to the US. Why use positive response for rejection?

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    157 months ago

    It makes a little more sense with the context that “I’m down” is shortened slang for “I’ll throw down on that”, itself slang for “I will get in on this situation” (as in “throwing down” some money or chips when gambling)

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      17 months ago

      I thought it is short for “I am putting myself down for that” or “put me down for that”. As in, putting yourself down on a list for attending an event.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    15
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    In the game of hell let loose you’re constantly trying to build Garrison’s for your team to spawn on, and destroy Garrison’s so your enemy can’t spawn.

    Highly ambiguous

    Garrison down on the point!

    Does this mean a friendly Garrison was just built? Does this mean the enemy Garrison was just destroyed? Who knows! Why not both?

    Schrödinger’s Garrison

  • David Phillipps
    link
    fedilink
    127 months ago

    In my friend circle we will invite each other to stuff and ask “are you up or down?” Then schedule them regardless of response.

  • 8bitguy
    link
    fedilink
    117 months ago

    Similar to calling in sick and calling out sick.

  • ripcord
    link
    fedilink
    117 months ago

    In the late 80s, bad and good were the same thing!

    • MacN'Cheezus
      link
      fedilink
      English
      67 months ago

      More recently, the difference between good and bad is in the presence or absence of the word “the” before “shit”.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        17 months ago

        This is problem with Russian language.

        это радио щит!

        “I think he likes the radio”

        “But we’ll never know!”

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      27 months ago

      … Tricks are for kids he plays much gigs

      He’s the big bad wolf and you’re the three pigs

      He’s the big bad wolf in your neighborhood

      Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good

      Run DMC

  • BlanketsWithSmallpox
    link
    fedilink
    English
    67 months ago

    Flammable. Inflammable. Famous. Infamous. So many dumb prefixes that make no sense.

    There really needs to be more language revisions every couple decades to get rid of stupid shit or revise letters, words, and spellings to be more in tune with their phonetic pronunciations.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox
      link
      fedilink
      English
      0
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      C / K / S. Remove X. Change letter names to match their sounds.

      A / ugh / Ayyy.

      B = Buh

      C = Removed? It’s just K or S in reality.

      D - Dih

      E - same?

      Etc. etc. there’s better linguists than an old school Grammar Nazi turned Language Darwinist.

      I like the idea of removing upper and lower case letters too and changing their denotation with a new symbol, but I’d have to think longer about case studies or could be easily persuaded.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        27 months ago

        C has some uses other than K/S. The usage in "ch"ess, for instance. We’ll have to shoehorn some other letter here if C is eliminated.

        • lad
          link
          fedilink
          27 months ago

          Or we may just reassign “c” to always sound “ch” since it’s freed from other sounds, and save some ink, too 😉

  • cannache
    link
    fedilink
    57 months ago

    The number of potential misunderstandings in English is why our language is the world favourite lol

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    37 months ago

    Is it just me or are people also using hands up instead of hands down? As in: this is hands down/up the best post I’ve read all day.

    As a non English native this always throws me off.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        67 months ago

        US here, we use “hands down”.

        That is hands down the worst children’s play I’ve ever seen.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          27 months ago

          I think some people are deliberately trying to fuck up intergenerational understanding by teaching weird or opposite versions of phrases and other cultural tokens