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The flavour of a sour reply

Dear Dr English

What is the meaning of "sour" other than the flavour of limes? I do not quite understand how somebody "replies sourly"? Could you please explain?

Sombat Thanaseri

I believe we all know the expression "sour grapes" from Aesop's Tales and the sour taste of the lime we put in our som tam. Now with people, somebody who is sour is bad-tempered and unfriendly. So if somebody replies/says something sourly, he/she has replied/spoken in an unfriendly manner.

"What are you doing here all alone in the dark?"

"Leave me alone", she said sourly.

When a friendship or attitude sours, it becomes less friendly or enjoyable, in short, it worsens.

The relationship between the two families has turned sour after their boys got into a serious fight at school.

And since "sour" conveys an "unpleasant/unfriendly" meaning, we say that something turns/goes sour when it becomes less satisfactory or has gone wrong.

Our business was looking good at the beginning, but after the typhoon hit our city everything started turning sour.

By the way, someone once asked me the difference between lime and lemon? Allow me to use this space to mention the difference between these two fruits: limes are the small round variety with the dark green rind, the ones we use to season tom yum and som tam, while lemons are a larger, oval shaped fruit with yellow rind.

I see/I'll see

Dear Dr English,

I work as a secretary. One day I asked my boss if he wanted to postpone a meeting because there was an unexpected visitor to see him. He said, "I see", which did not quite answer my question. From what I understood, "I see" means "I understand". Are there any other meanings of "I see" that I might not know of?

Somluck Yingcharoen

Apart from expressing that the speaker understands what someone is telling him/her, "I see" is also used to say that the speaker is not pleased about something as in:

"And you think it is alright to lie to your parents?"

"I didn't lie to you, Dad. I just couldn't tell you the truth at that time."

"I see."

But I think your boss might have said "I'll see" rather than "I see", because it makes more sense in this situation. "I'll see" indicates that the speaker does not wish to make any immediate decisions, but will look into it later.

"Shall we file criminal charges against the suspect, Inspector?"

"I'll see. I'm still looking for other crucial evidence."

By Dr English

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