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either

Posted by Rude Boy on September 08, 2004

In Reply to: Has or have? posted by Koji Hishinuma on September 08, 2004

: Hi Lotg & Dave,

: Thank a lot for explaining. This collevtive noun in English is so tricky for a non-native English speaker like myself. I still pause for a moment when I want to say in English that my father, my mother and my brothers and sisters, they all live in Fukuoka because I am not sure whether to say "My family live in Fukuoka." or "My family lives in Fukuoka.".

I wouldn't think either one sounded wrong. You will need to be careful about their home-town - being frank, there is an expression/verb "to fuck over" - meaning to do serious wrong by - i.e. a version of the intransitive verb "to fuck [something] up" with the nuance of it being deliberately.
If somebody said "Fukuoka" unclearly it would sound like "fuck you over" - not very polite.

there is often a problem with words being crudity in English. I met an American couple in Florence, (Firenze) Italy. the guy gave me his name and then the girl said "I'm Cacky!"
Stifling laughter was not easy, but I didn't say that she was confessing either to poor hygeine or an uncaught bowel emergency. Later in the conversation, I gently suggested that she ought to be careful how she expressed herself, as in colloquial English "Cacky" meant manure-like.

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