easy mark vs. put-upon

Young-min asked:

Can you explain the different meaning of 'an easy mark' and 'a put-upon type'?


This takes some unpacking. A mark is term criminals use for a person who is the target of their scam or crime. They have been "marked" to be the victim. An easy mark is someone the criminal (or "con artist") thinks will fall for their scam more easily than your average person. So, in more general language, an easy mark is someone who is easily fooled.

I haven't actually heard 'a put-upon type' as a common expression. However, if someone is put-upon, someone has imposed a task or condition on them against their wishes. The term also implies that they are communicating their resentment of the situation, usually by grumbling or sullen looks. So, to me, a put-upon type would be someone who is often put in this position, or acts like they are in this position even when they're not.

So in both cases, they are people who have a tendency to be taken advantage of. In the first, in its historical use, someone is an easy victim for a criminal. In a more general sense, they are easily fooled, either in a good-natured way as the victim of a joke, or in a bad way, like by a predatory lending institution or salesman. In the second, they are someone that people tend to give work to that they don't necessarily want to be doing.

9/8c

Young-Min asked:

While watching TV, I saw the '9/8c'. The movie-advertising voice said that the movie will come on 8 pm December 9th. But I don't know How can I read & pronounce '9/8c'.


You read 9/8c as "[at] nine, eight central." When I was a kid, they would put 9e/8c on the screen, which was "nine eastern, eight central," but with the pressure to shorten the durations of everything in broadcast, they dropped the "eastern." Both "eastern" and "central" refer to the time zones. I believe in California the broadcasts say "9/8p," meaning "nine, eight pacific."

Plans and time

Young-min asked about the difference between these words:

plan
Sceanario
Project
Schedule
My time(?)

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A plan is a set of actions you intend to take and the order you intend to do them. So, when I go grocery shopping, my plan will be to get some vegetables, then get some meat, and then some dairy products. Plan is also a verb: "I plan to arrive at 10 a.m." It can be synonymous with "to intend," with the subtle difference that you have probably thought about it a little more carefully than what "intend" would suggest, and also that the action (in this case, the arrival) might be part of a bigger plan.

Scenario has a few meanings. It can be a series of actions like a plan, but instead of intending to do those actions, they are possible actions that could happen. In this case, you are usually comparing different scenarios, or different series of actions or events. A scenario can also be the conditions that exist before a person or event will begin. So, if you are bringing a friend to visit your family, you may tell them some things about your family before you arrive so that they know what to expect and possibly how to behave. This is the scenario.

A project is the name for all of the materials, actions, events, and even people involved toward a particular product or event. Painting your living room can be a kind of project. A political campaign is a project. There is at least one goal for a project, if not several. A good project will have a plan, but the plan is just part of the project.

A schedule can mean two things. It commonly refers to how you organize your time--appointments, errands and other events. People talk about having room in their schedule, meaning they have available time. The other meaning is like a plan because it can mean an order of events. But a plan is usually not specific about the length of time and deadlines for the events, but a schedule mainly focuses on durations and deadlines. Schedule is also a verb: "I scheduled a doctor's appointment for next Tuesday at 2 p.m."

My time is a casual way of referring to your personal schedule. It usually implies your free time--meaning time that isn't already scheduled for work, school or other obligations.

Icky

Hye Yoon asked me about "icky."

"Ick" is what we (Americans) say when we see something gross or disgusting or physically unpleasant. "Icky" is the adjectival form.

So, we can say we feel icky, or we saw something icky. "I changed an icky diaper yesterday."

Another way to get questions to me

You can post your questions as comments to any blog entry and I'll address them either as a comment or as a new posting. This seems easier than having to email them to me.

More soon!

A start

I've been volunteering as a teacher at the International Friendship Center in Madison, WI, for a while now. At the end of each class, I usually ask if anyone has any question about specific words or expressions in English. As the possibility that I'll be leaving Madison (or be in Madison less), I wanted to find a way that I could still help people who wanted a native speaker's sense of English.

People at the IFC can email me questions, and I'll post answers here. I'm trying this out--maybe it will work, maybe it won't. But it seemed like it might be useful and a good way to still help out with the IFC.