JCK Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 A Uni student friend of mine sat an English exam today. After the exam, she discussed a few of the questions with me. Her English is not great so the facts she passed on may not be entirely correct. Apparently, one of the questions was: “Townships replete with condominiums and even lots of schools sprung up. What does the word “replete” mean?” Good question I thought, what the bloody hell does it mean? After a sneaky peak in the dictionary, I discovered it means “abundant or full”. Has anyone come across this word in the last 100 years? Also, as many posters on this forum have top notch writing skills, could I ask if I am correct in assuming the above sentence is truly crap English? (Just for the record - Not fair of me to name my friend’s Uni but her English teacher is Thai.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Kev Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 My English ain't great, but I do know that "replete" means "abundant or full". And I'd say anyone who would put this word on a vocabulary test is replete of shit. My girlfriend is taking "intermediate" level English class and I have stopped even trying to help her study. All kinds of jive about verb tenses, participles, and crap that I was never able to figure out in my own 20+ years of experience with US education system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibblies Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 Standard, everyday word for we English chaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Big Kev: My girlfriend is taking "intermediate" level English class and I have stopped even trying to help her study. All kinds of jive about verb tenses, participles, and crap that I was never able to figure out in my own 20+ years of experience with US education system. It's not 'crap' when you're learning a new language. It's necessary to learn the mechanics and rules of a language in order to know how it works and how to use it properly. There are reasons for many different types of grammatical speech that are applied to many different situations etc... As native speakers we learned English as children over many years. It was conditioned into us in every kind of situation. It's a different kind of learning. The grammatical system is rule-based and we have a subconscious knowledge of these rules; as native speakers we know what rules to apply and often know what is correct or wrong in speech but often would find it difficult to articulate these rules. New language learners must learn these rules and speech patterns in order to speak the language competently. I, for one, don't believe that you can learn 'good' English by example and situation only. Learning the grammar and rules are essential to a comprehensive understanding of a new language. As for your friends sentence containing 'replete', I agree that it doesn't sound correct (although grammatically correct) in this context. Probably 'full of' or 'with an abundance of' would have been more appropriate. It looks as though it's been translated from a dictionary and thrown into the sentence without any real awareness of its correct usage or appropriacy. English isn't easy. But it can be made more confusing being taught from a non-native speaker for sure. Mind you, non-native speakers usually can teach good grammar skills. I've noticed this from teaching my students who've had Thai teachers only in the past. As far as appropriacy, formality and correct word usage goes though, a native speaker can't be beaten. Or maybe I'm just completely replete with shit also. Cheers Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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