[MPlayer-users] [Very OT] German Speakers

[The Wanderer]

Joey Parrish wrote:

> Sorry for the very very off-topic post. I wanted to reach a large
> audience of helpful Europeans.  :)

I'm neither European nor a speaker of German, but as one of the resident
English-usage hounds, I do have one comment, to wit:

> I'm curious about something in German.  In English, the verb
> "explode" is intransitive.  A thing explodes, but someone does not
> explode it. We could say I "detonate" something, but that verb is too
> technical. What sounds best, IMO, is to say I "blow it up".  The
> phrase is informal, but seems most correct.

Actually, phrases like "the bomb squad exploded the device safely" are
to the best of my knowledge perfectly valid English - the usage just
isn't common, that's all. "To explode" is most often intransitive, but
it is not inherently so.

The above derives from a generally descriptivist viewpoint, mind you,
but that doesn't mean it's invalid.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.