Pawel Stankiewicz wrote:
Richard Fairhurst <[email protected]> wrote:
Pawel Stankiewicz wrote:
"If you don't know how to revert an import, chances are you
shouldn't be doing the import in the first place."
Chances are something very different from a ban.
No. You're misunderstanding English idiom.
No. It's not ,,a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular
meaning that is
different from the meanings of each word understood on its own":
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/idiom?q=idiom
,,chances are you shouldn't" means ,,probably you shouldn't'" but you still
may it (are allowed). Deleting ,,chances" you made it only more
categorical but it still far far away from a rule in meaning used by you (do only).
Pawel,
There are at least two layers of subtle meaning in that statement.
What you are perhaps missing is the element of sarcastic
understatement. For example, if I noticed that someone were about to
put salt in their tea instead of sugar, I might say "err... are you
sure you want to do that?". What that means is of course "you idiot, stop!".
Of course it would be better to avoid language like this, but it is
hard for someone who has developed a complex style to revert to a
lowest common denominator.
Cheers, Phil.
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