On Fri, 2002-09-06 at 16:46, Elliott Martin wrote: > > > On Fri, 6 Sep 2002, Brad Felmey wrote: > > > On Fri, 2002-09-06 at 05:26, Adam Williamson wrote: > > > On Fri, 2002-09-06 at 06:30, Quel Qun wrote: > > > > > > > Since then I also noticed during the install the description of partmon > > > > service: "Checks if a partition is close to full up". > > > > > > > > Please check, but I think "is close to fill up" would sound better. or > > > > "is getting full". > > > > > > Nope. "Is close to full up" is fine, and standard English usage. You > > > could also use "Is close to being full" or even just "Is nearly full", > > > but "Close to full up" is just fine. > > > > I think this is one of those times when en_GB and en_US diverge a bit. > > It may sound completely appropriate to you, yet in the US it sounds > > quite awkward. > > The reason its sounds screwy to the non-english speakers, and alright to > the english, but totally screwed to the americans, is because of the up on > the end. "Is close to full up" vs "Is close to full". I can't remember > exactly what that's called, but there's a name for that type of > grammatical error.
It's not an error, just a difference in idiomatic usage; you would call a gasoline tank full whereas we would call a petrol tank full up. Perhaps we could call the partition 'spatially inconvenienced' ;) I suspect you might be confusing this situation with ending a sentence with a preposition, which is usually frowned on as doing so is clumsy but, strictly, not incorrect. As Winston Churchill once memorably wrote on coming across such a situation, 'this is the sort of English up with which I will not put'! Alastair
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
