• I’ve known him for a long time, it seems.
• I’ve known him since he showed me his collection of old records and we discovered that we share a hobby.
• Incorrect: I know him for a long time -> I’ve known him for a long time.

Compare my chart for “until/ by”. I developed these charts a few years ago and get a lot of mileage out of them.

Until or by?

• Until means from now until then.
• By, used for deadlines, means not later than then.
• By… at the latest!
• Imagine: If you said “until Friday”, your friend might say “Sure, until Friday is fine. But I need it on Saturday, so can you come round on Saturday morning to drop it off?”
• Here’s an exercise on using “until” and “by”, with a pdf.

I asked her how much…

• do I need to pay.
• did I need to pay.
• I need to pay.
• I needed to pay.

This is reported speech and a quoted, or indirect, question. Two rules apply:

1. Make the verb match the tense of the reporting verb, “asked” (change it into the past tense)
2. Use sentence order, not question order in the quoted question part.

There is one correct answer. However, you may find the others used, too, and by people who speak perfect English. Why?

First of all, we sometimes quote direct questions and it’s not always easy to hear the quotation marks! Just think of this line from Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave your Lover”: “She said why don’t we both just sleep on it tonight.”

And secondly, we adapt the tense in the reported speech to our frame of reference, which can be wider than just the situation at the time of speaking.

Compare:

• I asked her what she was talking about. (The frame of reference is the situation at the time.)
• I asked her when she was/ is planning to move. (The frame of reference is is wider than just the situation at the time.)

This week’s question is one of business register.

From an order form: “Please note that payment for food platters ___________ be received in advance.”

Must or has got to?

How would you say the same thing to a customer?

But which of these two is correct:

• “This laptop needs to be repaired.”
• “This laptop needs being repaired.”

Yes, unfortunately I’ve worked my poor laptop so hard that it’s got several hardware problems now. One key sometimes doesn’t work (the 9), and the right loudspeaker sometimes goes silent on me. That must have to do with the many lunches I have had too close to the keyboard — and my somewhat percussive style of typing. You see, I was a real idiot when I was a teen and refused to learn to type with ten fingers, saying I didn’t want to be stuck in an office job. — So what do I do for a living today? Creative typing! And loud! And bouncy!

Another problem: The DVD-ROM drive doesn’t read discs ever since I dropped my laptop case one black day. I’ve got about 1/2 of my music collection imported onto this baby (and backed up) and have switched to iTunes for new stuff, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to play a DVD, you know?

OK, dear Apple Store, I’m afraid I’m going to have to bite the bullet and ask for an estimate. Is having repairs done going to be cheaper than a new laptop? Fingers crossed!

Guess what, Mr. Desktop, I’m coming back to you for a week. But don’t get your hopes up, baby, this is strictly temporary.

But first, I’m off to give a seminar for a few days. So, just in case, here’s your answer.

“_____________ flights all over Europe are cancelled because of the volcano.”

• They say
• Something tells me
• One says

Related news:

• Lufthansa is reportedly going to try to sue the German government for damages.
• John Cleese is alleged to have spent thousands to get from Oslo to Brussels… by taxi!

Danny Granger, American professional basketball player for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, famously knocked out his two front teeth in a victorious game against the Boston Celtics on 1 November 2008. You can say both of these:

• He knocked out two teeth.
• He knocked two teeth out.

But you can only say one of these:

• He knocked out them.
• He knocked them out.

Compare: “knock out” is a phrasal verb like:
put away (aufräumen), bring up (=mention), try out, give up, call up, rip off (=steal), think over, boss around (herumkomandieren), make up (=invent)
They all use the structure of “knock it out.”
There are lots of lists and exercises here. Try them out!

Contrast regular two part verbs:
fall for, bump into, get over, look at, go up, fall down…
Look at them!

Knock ‘em out