An English Lesson.

Here’s an interesting little note on the subtlety of the English language:

Take the question posed by the prisoner in the last post:

‘We don’t have to eat here, do we?’

By slightly changing the relative stresses in the phrase ‘eat here’, you change the meaning of the question completely. One means ‘Now that we’re here, we no longer have to eat.’ The other means ‘We don’t have to eat in this place; we can eat somewhere else.’

And this is important because it reveals why the written form of English can be such a minefield of misconception. What I should now do is go back and edit that question, removing the ambiguous one and replacing it with one that leaves no doubt. That's what I would do if it were intended for publication. In this case, however, I'll leave it as it is because it demonstrates a point nicely to anyone learning my language.