[Language Related] Doubt vs Question
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Is it an Indian thing? Yes, I suspect it's one of those things where a translation is happening word for word, the phrase 'I have a doubt' makes sense in your pallindrome language, and can be deciphered in English, but people wouldn't say it that way. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Is it an Indian thing? Yes, I suspect it's one of those things where a translation is happening word for word, the phrase 'I have a doubt' makes sense in your pallindrome language, and can be deciphered in English, but people wouldn't say it that way. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
Christian Graus wrote: the phrase 'I have a doubt' makes sense in your pallindrome language, LOL :-) Actually, you are right. In Malayalam we say "Enikku (I) oru (a) Samshayam (doubt) undu (have)" -> [direct word-by-word translation] -> I have a doubt -> [literary modification] -> I have a question. Maybe the same applies to other Indian languages too.
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? I've never heard any UK people use it. Mind you, I've not met any Indians (outside of CP) who use it either. CG's answer makes sense though. Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? I've never heard any UK people use it. Mind you, I've not met any Indians (outside of CP) who use it either. CG's answer makes sense though. Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
Michael P Butler wrote: Mind you, I've not met any Indians (outside of CP) Possibly because all the Indians you met in real life grew up in the UK.
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
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That's a new phrase that I have not heard in any conversation with both UK and caribbean friends.
I Dream of Absolute Zero
RChin wrote: That's a new phrase that I have not heard in any conversation with both UK and caribbean friends. See my reply to CG - it's a native-language-induced grammatical error :-)
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Michael P Butler wrote: Mind you, I've not met any Indians (outside of CP) Possibly because all the Indians you met in real life grew up in the UK.
Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Possibly because all the Indians you met in real life grew up in the UK. I've worked with a few guys flown over from India as part of an outsourced project also. They never used doubt in that matter either. Maybe as people mix more with native English speakers they adapt better to the correct phrasing. Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Possibly because all the Indians you met in real life grew up in the UK. I've worked with a few guys flown over from India as part of an outsourced project also. They never used doubt in that matter either. Maybe as people mix more with native English speakers they adapt better to the correct phrasing. Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
Michael P Butler wrote: Maybe as people mix more with native English speakers they adapt better to the correct phrasing. Yeah - could be so. In fact, when I returned after my US stint, a couple of friends said I was using strange phrases and words and that my accent and tone had changed slightly. In fact, many Indians I met (who lived in the US) said, they have two ways of speaking English - one that they use with Americans (which'd tend towards an American accent) and one that they used with other Indians (who had recently moved to the US) where they used a more Indian-style accent and used Indian English phrases and words!
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? I have never heard the specific sentence, so sounds like an Indian thing. In general terms, we all let slang usage of words creep into our vocabulary. Be the source from mapping languages or a local evolution of meaning. I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that I can think of.
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
I've never heard that usage, but just to confuse the issue I can add that in Scots, "doubt" can mean "expect" or "guess". For example: I doubt it'll rain -> I expect it will rain. In "normal" English, it would mean "I don't think it will rain". Gavin Greig "Haw, you're no deid," girned Charon. "Get aff ma boat or ah'll report ye." Matthew Fitt - The Hoose O Haivers: The Twelve Trauchles O Heracles.
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
This is a pretty common occurrence. I would guess it is probably even more common for Americans than it is in the U.K. given that American English incorporates so many donor words from other languages. On the other hand that may be wrong, given the highly multi-ethnic nature of the U.K. population. I would imagine that non-native speakers would tend to exhibit non-standard word choice more often. Language between people is highly mutable. What starts as a casual misuse of a word can over time become standard usage. Computer-related jargon is one example. The word initialize derives from the adverb initial, transformed into a verb. This word didn't exist until the 1950's or 1960's. Another example is the word 'gay', which now almost universally refers to being homosexual. It's previous meaning was 'happy', or 'care-free'. The other problem is that translation is never a one-to-one proposition. It's a common misperception that you can translate text in language A to language B without loss of information. There are shades of meaning in how things are phrased, punctuation, word choice and order that don't tend to survive the translation process. I would guess that the corresponding words question (which refers to a request for information) and doubt (disbelief in an idea expressed by another) are closer in meaning in the misuser's native language, making the appropriate word choice less obvious.
Software Zen:
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Christian Graus wrote: the phrase 'I have a doubt' makes sense in your pallindrome language, LOL :-) Actually, you are right. In Malayalam we say "Enikku (I) oru (a) Samshayam (doubt) undu (have)" -> [direct word-by-word translation] -> I have a doubt -> [literary modification] -> I have a question. Maybe the same applies to other Indian languages too.
Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Samshayam (doubt) Would you really capatalize this word, or did you just type it like that? If it's capatalized, is there any signifigance to that? Like, doubt could be a noun or a verb in English: (v):I doubt you can do that. (n): I have my doubts about that. ~Nitron.
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Samshayam (doubt) Would you really capatalize this word, or did you just type it like that? If it's capatalized, is there any signifigance to that? Like, doubt could be a noun or a verb in English: (v):I doubt you can do that. (n): I have my doubts about that. ~Nitron.
ññòòïðïðB A
startNitron wrote: Would you really capatalize this word, No. Malayalam script does not have separate uppercase and lowercase letters. Nitron wrote: or did you just type it like that? I just typed it in that way.
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
Nishant Sivakumar wrote: I have a doubt In the begining of The Fifth Element[^] the United Planets President Lindberg says "I have a doubt" just before General Staedert launches his missiles at the Black Planet of Dartkness. Just thought I'd share! :) ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
Perhaps it's regional U.S., but I've heard both in use. As I understand it, the two phrases carry different meanings. "I have a question" would indicate that the speaker does not have enough information, and needs something clarified. "I have a doubt", on the other hand, would mean that the speaker understands, but believes that there is something wrong with what he has heard or read. One is a request for more information, the other indicates something wrong with the information already given. Does that make sense? Vincent
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Perhaps it's regional U.S., but I've heard both in use. As I understand it, the two phrases carry different meanings. "I have a question" would indicate that the speaker does not have enough information, and needs something clarified. "I have a doubt", on the other hand, would mean that the speaker understands, but believes that there is something wrong with what he has heard or read. One is a request for more information, the other indicates something wrong with the information already given. Does that make sense? Vincent
To me as a German native speaker, to have a doubt sounds pretty natural as it's the same in German (or, to be precisely, it's plural in German, i.e. having doubts). However, reading through this posts I read something like "Does that make sense?" a few times. This is used in German very often, but "to make sense" is wrong language, it's just directly translated from English, pretty much the same as to have a doubt is in English :)
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
I still remember, Shalini walking up to me and saying, "I have a doubt." I was very confused, thinking she wanted to talk about her faith. After some explanation I've understood what Indians mean when they say, "doubt".
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Typical sentence in an email query or forum post :- I have a doubt I remember once asking Paul Watson something similar and he told me it was wrong grammar and when I thought of it, I found it quite obvious. So why do people use the word 'doubt' when they mean 'question' or 'query'? Is it an Indian thing? Or do Americans and UKers do it too? Nish
This happens quite a bit with our indian staff, and I've never heard anyone else do it, from my perspective its a very indian thing. "Hi Phil. I have a doubt about bug xxxx" It took me weeks to realise he didn't doubt anything, but really just had a question about it.