{"id":96,"date":"2013-02-23T11:33:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T11:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monkeygrammar.org\/index.php\/2013\/02\/23\/discuss-or-discuss-about\/"},"modified":"2020-04-15T14:50:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T14:50:56","slug":"discuss-or-discuss-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/discuss-or-discuss-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Discuss or Discuss about"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/span>
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When you <\/span>talk to<\/span> your coworkers and customers, do you use the verb ‘<\/span>discuss<\/span>‘.  If you use it quite often, then you have to <\/span>be very careful<\/span>. <\/span>Why? <\/span>There are always <\/span>traps<\/span> waiting for you. <\/span>What traps? <\/span>There is one for you now. <\/span>Watch out<\/span>!<\/span>
\n <\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/span>We discussed about the project (on marketing).<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>The sentence is wrong<\/span>!  Yes, read my lips (though you can’t).   It is <\/span>absolutely<\/span> WRONG<\/span>. W<\/span>hat’s wrong with the sentence?  It looks good, right? <\/span>No<\/span>, it’s not.  <\/span>Want to know what’s wrong with it?  Read it again:<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\nWe discussed about<\/span> the project (on marketing).<\/span>
\n <\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span><\/b>You may:<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

1<\/span>    <\/span><\/span>discuss a project<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
2<\/span>    <\/span><\/span>discuss a project with<\/span> Mr CEO<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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\n<\/span><\/span> <\/span>
\n—————————————————————————————<\/span>
\nIn other words, the above two sentences are very <\/span>different in meaning. <\/span>The first one <\/span><\/b>(walk with a dog) <\/span>puts you and a dog <\/span>on an equal footing<\/span>. <\/span>The second one is<\/span> different<\/span><\/span>.  You are <\/span>a master<\/span>, having <\/span>power over<\/span> a dog<\/span>. <\/span>The same<\/span> rule applies to the verb \u2018discuss\u2019. <\/span>You may:<\/span>
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\n<\/span> <\/span>
\ndiscuss <\/span>a case<\/span>
\ndiscuss <\/span>an issue<\/span>
\ndiscuss <\/span>a problem<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/b>—————————————————————————————<\/span><\/b>
\nSo, when you talk on the phone with a customer, you may say: <\/span><\/b>If you would like to <\/span>discuss the matter<\/span> <\/span>(further)<\/span>, please come to our office.<\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/a>
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\n<\/span>—————————————————————————–<\/span>
\nReference:<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Lock, G. (1996) <\/span>Functional English Grammar. <\/b>Cambridge: Cambridge University Press <\/span>(p.74-75). <\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/b>Pic sources:<\/span><\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/76029035@N02\/6829527437\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/<\/span><\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ddebold\/2936900395\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/<\/span><\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/76029035@N02\/6829524451\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you talk to your coworkers and customers, do you use the verb ‘discuss‘.  If you use it quite often, then you have to be very careful. Why? There are always traps waiting for you. What traps? There is one for you now. Watch out!   We discussed about the project (on marketing). The sentence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/people-with-open-arms-on-the-stair-steps.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

<\/span>
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\nBut if you <\/span>discuss ABOUT<\/span> a project, you fall into a trap. <\/span><\/b>But <\/span>why<\/span> is it wrong? <\/span>‘Discuss about’ is <\/span>wrong<\/span> because when you use it, you have some kind of power. <\/span>What power is it? <\/span> <\/span>It is <\/span>the power<\/span> over <\/span>a project. <\/span>In other words, a project is like a dog<\/span>, and you are like a master<\/span>. <\/span><\/b>For example, you may say: <\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span> <\/span><\/a>You <\/span>walk<\/span> a dog<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>
\n (Well, maybe two dogs)<\/span><\/b>
\n
\n<\/span><\/span> <\/span>
\nAnd you<\/span> don\u2019t need any prepositions<\/span> between the action and the dog. <\/span>What prepositions? <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\nYou walk <\/span>WITH<\/span> a dog<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>   VS       <\/span>You walk<\/span> a dog<\/span>.  <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n