Crack the door

Chris Waigl chris at LASCRIBE.NET
Mon Aug 24 13:25:02 UTC 2009


On 23 Aug 2009, at 19:12, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> I find it very odd too, much like "Could you warm the coffee" if it's
> too hot and you want me to put in an ice cube or blow on it so it
> will be (only) warm.


I find /warm the coffee/ = "bring it from hot down to merely warm" or,
for that matter, /cool the coffee/ = "bring it from freezing up to
cool" pretty much impossible. (Warning: non-native speaker.) Does any
native speaker use the two verbs like this? I'd just swap them, ie
use /cool/ in the first case and /warm/ in the second.

Chris Waigl

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Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
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