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Teach Yourself - a doubt

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吕明扬
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 Message 9 of 59
18 December 2008 at 2:25pm | IP Logged 
Terry have you never heard the phrase "I have some doubts (about this)" ? its definitely the noun in that situation. With "this" being the object. saying "I doubt this" sounds a little strange. so its probaly a N/V word like Plan.
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TheElvenLord
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 Message 10 of 59
18 December 2008 at 2:57pm | IP Logged 
Quote:
With "this" being the object. saying "I doubt this" sounds a little strang


In Britsh English, "I doubt this/that" sounds quite normal, at least to me.

TEL

Edited by TheElvenLord on 18 December 2008 at 2:58pm

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TerryW
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 Message 11 of 59
19 December 2008 at 3:10am | IP Logged 
吕明扬 wrote:
Terry have you never heard the phrase "I have some doubts (about this)" ? its definitely the noun in that situation.


Sure, but as Cainntear said, it means an uncertainty in this case. The particular "noun-al" use that I'm talking about seems to flat-out mean "a question to be asked."

From Wikipedia: "Doubt, a status between belief and disbelief, involves uncertainty or distrust or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision..."

I searched USENET for "doubt" phrases. Here are some examples, not of disbelief, but a question:

"so here is my doubt... How can I change the process to run or not with OS X?"

"Please answer this Doubt i have."

And my favorite:

"I have a doubt. Why people use shut up for human being and shut down for computers. Purpose of both is same."

OK, Let's forget the noun thing I brought up, my point is that the word "doubt" is just not used that way by U.S. Americans (nor by Brits?).

And I even found a whole discussion on this topic:

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-192539.html
I have a doubt about "doubt"

(Sorry to hi-jack the topic)

Edited by TerryW on 19 December 2008 at 3:29am

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gogglehead
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 Message 12 of 59
19 December 2008 at 4:20am | IP Logged 
In response to TerryW's query, could the noun "a doubt" be the non-native English speakers result from the verb, which can have simmilar meanings in certain contexts.

e.g He questions my competence - He doubts my competence, both have very similar meanings in this sense. Maybe the confusion was created when taking the nouns (a question, a doubt) from these verbs?

G
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Cainntear
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 Message 13 of 59
19 December 2008 at 10:51am | IP Logged 
I don't think we need to go too deep into theoretical "how they make this mistake" discussions -- basically "I have a doubt" is a literal translation from a very common phrase in the Romance languages. Nothing more complicated than that.

In French (as per Hollow):
" j'ai un doute sur ce point- la" (I have a doubt on this point there [ie that point])
In Spanish
"Tengo una duda" (I-have a doubt)

Edited by Cainntear on 19 December 2008 at 10:53am

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Hencke
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 Message 14 of 59
19 December 2008 at 11:32am | IP Logged 
I was reminded of this earlier this year when I invited questions from an audience with the words "Any questions, or doubts?", and someone, though not a native speaker of English as it happens, pointed out that it was an unnatural wording in English and he was able to guess from that that I had been living in a romance-language-speaking country.

Apparently I have been contaminated slightly by Spanish in the case of this expression. Not that it has gone far enough that I would ever utter something like "I have a doubt for you." but still.

In any case, since then I am trying to catch myself with this and try to make it a point to use "Any questions, or anything you're wondering about?" instead.
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cheng
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 Message 15 of 59
23 December 2008 at 10:27am | IP Logged 
I think the word question is used when you don't understand something and the word doubt is used when you suspect something is wrong. Question covers a broader range of situations.That is the difference, perhaps?
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 16 of 59
23 December 2008 at 1:58pm | IP Logged 
It's funny how a question about the Teach Yourself series can evolve into a discussion about the word "doubt". :)


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