walk across

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar, English Language, English As A Second Language
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I study English which I do not know very well.
Will someone explain to me what "across" means? A man in a video here: https://youtu.be/IlFSl3m3Wp8 is walking on the road askew, at an angle of about 45 degrees. May one say that he is walking across the road? Does walking across mean only to move stricktly or almost perpendicularly to something?

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 1,368 • Replies: 12

[+3] - Sturgis - 06/07/2016To walk across something, anything, can be done without making a straight line. It can be done in a zigzag manner, moving left to right, left to right or at one angle all the way. Quite...

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@Razmysl,

To walk across something, anything, can be done without making a straight line. It can be done in a zigzag manner, moving left to right, left to right or at one angle all the way. Quite simply, whatever means (way) a person chooses to go across a road, body of water, field, mountain, room, etc. If a person chooses to move across something in ever growing circular movements, they will eventually be able to get across,

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Sturgis wrote:

to move across something in ever growing circular movements,

Sometimes I come across stuff that makes me go spiraling..

(Kidding).

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The essence of moving across something is that one starts at one side and arrives at the other side. One crosses. There is no implication of any particular direction or angle.

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Often a boat crossing a river will move at an angle because of the motion of the water. One might use a supplementary word to make clear if a direction at right angles to the edge is to be implied, e.g. I saw my friend directly across the street from me.

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis, I have looked through lots of reference information before posted my question, but I could nowhere find an explanation such wise and easy to understand as that you provided here.

Sturgis wrote:

If a person chooses to move across something in ever growing circular movements, they will eventually be able to get across,

This is a wonderful elucidation!
Thanks a lot.

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@timur,

timur wrote:

Sometimes I come across stuff that makes me go spiraling..

timur, did I get you right it is a pun? You can understand this phrase in two ways: both literally and as a set expression. "To come across" means to meet with something by chance too, doesn't it? If you meant the latter then this play on words is really witty and droll.

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@Tes yeux noirs,

Tes yeux noirs, thank you very much. The point is that there were only things standing opposite each other or people/vehicles moving at right or almost right angles to a body of something in all images and videos to word "across" which I could get through search engines. It made me suppose that "across" was something always perpendicular to an axis which was transversed.

Tes yeux noirs wrote:

The essence of moving across something is that one starts at one side and arrives at the other side. One crosses. There is no implication of any particular direction or angle.

Tes yeux noirs wrote:

One might use a supplementary word to make clear if a direction at right angles to the edge is to be implied, e.g. I saw my friend directly across the street from me.

But it set things straight.

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@Razmysl,

Except that it uses the plural "they" with a singular antecedent, "a person." What's wrong with "People who choose to...will eventually"? Why all these sentences beginning in "if"? Who is influencing us to numb our minds with constructions that lead to illogical thinking?

The media hired to push this mind control would take "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" and purposely mutilate it to "If someone lives in a glass house, they shouldn't throw stones."

I don't blame people today for believing that the media are educated and should serve as language role models. We've been brainwashed all our lives to not question the authority of that proven absurdity. What's the point of being allowed to question their political opinions if we can't question college education as being a qualification for a job?

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Crazy Sage waking up a weeks old language thread to vent his nutty obsessions.

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@Tes yeux noirs,

SHEEP'S PRIDE

You have a desperate need to defend the self-appointed authorities who are purposely ruining structured language and thought just to prove how much power they have.

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@Sage of Main Street,

Sage of Main Street, your ideas are so clever and deep.

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@Razmysl,

Razmysl wrote:

timur wrote:
Sometimes I come across stuff that makes me go spiraling..

timur, did I get you right it is a pun? You can understand this phrase in two ways: both literally and as a set expression. "To come across" means to meet with something by chance too, doesn't it? If you meant the latter then this play on words is really witty and droll.

If you continue reading and analyzing my sentence, in connection with what Sturgis posted, you'll understand the rest of the pun..

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walk across

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