Difference between revisions 3221112 and 3264545 on enwiki

:''Geoffrey (the fun I could have by adding bad translations...but I didn't)''

You mean things like "we go back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?" and such? ;) -- [[User:JohnOwens|John Owens]]

This critter is a little long (38kb).  I wonder if it isn't possible to split it into smaller pieces. [[User:Emperorbma|Emperorbma]] 05:03 2 Jun 2003 (UTC)

(contracted; show full)

I presume the [[Frisian language]] is [[West Frisian language]] as they are not mutually comprehensible. [[User:Secretlondon|Secretlondon]] 23:04, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Hm. Do you speak English and Can you speak English are subtly different... but I suspect that the true intent is to get the person you are speaking to to speak in English. But I can't think of a better (polite) replacement for that purpose. - [[User:Zhen Lin|Zhen Lin]] 11:08, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

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"Do you speak English?" is a polite request about a person's preference. It does not imply that the person might not be able to speak English. (But in the case that the person does not know how to speak English the speaker is reasonably safe because the person spoken to will be unlikely to understand the question either. So no offense would be given.) "Can you speak English?" sounds a little less polite. It could be interpreted to indicate the belief on the part of the speaker that the other person ought to be able to speak English (and is ignorant or stupid if unable to do so). It would be offensive if understood, regardless of whether the person spoken to could respond or not. I'm reminded of getting onto an airplane and sitting next to a lady from Great Britain. "Do you read?" she asked, offering me a book. "Can you read?" would have been the wrong thing to say. The other function of the original question is to give the person asked the chance to say, "Yes, I do speak English, but only a little.  Please talk slowly." [[User:Patrick0Moran|P0M]] 02:38, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)