|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 2/26/2021
Posts: 286
Neurons: 1,773
|
The bus on which harry is has a conductor: speaking, I believe, very weirdly. 1)When he was talking about Voldemort's followers... Quote:..wiv You-know-'Oo gone, and they came quiet.
Shouldn't it have been "Came quietly"?? 2) Now he is talking about the mass murderer. Quote:'e went wiv 'em quiet as anyfink, still laughing 'is 'ead off.
Quiet AS ANYTHING?? Not to mention, if he was laughing, he couldn't be quiet?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/14/2018
Posts: 1,475
Neurons: 32,336
|
The bus conductor is speaking in a very Cockney manner, using the adjective form ("quiet") instead of the adverb form ("quietly")--common in the Cockney dialect--and using /f/ instead of an unvoiced /th/--also common in Cockney.
|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 2/26/2021
Posts: 286
Neurons: 1,773
|
Quiet as anything?? What does that mean? Never heard. On second thought, I've heard of as (something) as anything.
Is As redundant in the standard English or just in cockney English?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/30/2016
Posts: 2,512
Neurons: 16,002
Location: Luton, England, United Kingdom
|
Here come quietly or come quiet is an idiomatic in British English.
It means to go with the authorities, normally the police without resisting them the mass murderer can still make noise such as laughing about his crime. He isn’t struggling against them.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/8/2010
Posts: 24,024
Neurons: 97,376
|
Quiet is not just about sound. It is about the level of activity. Here, resistance. You can be singing loudly but you come quietly if you acquiesce to the orders you are given. Quote:Having little motion or activity; calm.
the sea was quiet
a quiet night at home
all quiet on the Western front
Not busy, of low quantity.
The traffic was quiet for a Monday morning.
Business was quiet for the season.
|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 2/26/2021
Posts: 286
Neurons: 1,773
|
Come quiet is standard English, isn't it?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/12/2011
Posts: 35,026
Neurons: 238,054
Location: Livingston, Scotland, United Kingdom
|
I don't think so.
If you don't resist arrest, you "come quietly".
If you stop making a noise, you "become quiet".
I can't think of a standard usage for "come quiet".
*****************
On "as quiet as anything", it's a superlative of "quiet".
He was as quiet as a lamb.
He was as quiet as a mouse.
He was as quiet as a summer breeze.
He was as quiet as anything (whatever you can think of which is quiet - he was as quiet as that - anything. Nothing is quieter.)
Omitting the first "as" is not standard English, but it is heard in colloquial speech all over the UK.
|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 2/26/2021
Posts: 286
Neurons: 1,773
|
I looked up in Merriam and found that it was written quite like this:
(as) calm as anything.
Is it only a special case with "calm"?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/19/2011
Posts: 15,647
Neurons: 74,672
|
Penz wrote:I looked up in Merriam and found that it was written quite like this:
(as) calm as anything.
Is it only a special case with "calm"? No, it can be used with many emotional states: as angry as/as excited as/as furious as/as depressed as, etc. In each case, however, you add something to show "how" angry/excited/furious/depressed someone is.
|
|
|
Guest |