by Alan Townend46. Usage of the word turn or «My turn» ................................
If you look through the topics raised in the forums of http://www.english-
test.net and in particular the one headed: English Vocabulary,
Grammar and Idioms, it won't take you long to find a question about
phrasal verbs. These are without doubt the trickiest, nastiest,
sneakiest devices that ever a learner of English has to put up with.
There I've just used one. Honestly I couldn't help it. The reason why
these constructions are so disliked is because they have no logic in
them. What about the verb take - a nice quiet and unassuming verb
that would, you'd think, never step out of line? But add off or on or
up to it and this verb that wouldn't normally say boo to a goose
suddenly gets ideas above its station and creates a fistful of new
meanings. Then when we try to explain what they all mean, it gets
very complicated. With that in mind I thought I'd just take one of
these apparently innocuous verbs, add a few prepositions (or
particles as grammarians like to call them) to it and show what they
mean in a short story. The chosen verb is turn and it's all about
when I got myself a part-time job during a vacation when I was a
student:
Most students have to or try to earn a little extra by getting a holiday
job. They turn aside from (leave behind) their studies and experience
the real world for a short while. One long hot summer I turned to
(undertook) waiting as my method of getting cash. Perhaps I should
turn that word 'waiting' into (change it into) a more specific
explanation. I mean being a waiter in a hotel. I had of course turned
my hand to (tried) many jobs during the vacation periods but waiting
was certainly the most arduous. As hotel guests have little else to do
but eat, they are constantly in need of being waited upon. The one
hotel that hadn't turned down (rejected) my application (it was a
very popular job in that part of the country) was situated right in the
middle of a forest and as you turned into (walked up) the drive and
saw the rolling hills all around you, it felt like the middle of nowhere.
It had been a very large private house that had been turned into
(converted into) a small hotel for twenty-five guests. The new
owners had had to turn out (tidy) all the rooms which were full of old
junk accumulated over a period of sixty years as well having to turn
out (remove) a tramp who had lived in an upstairs room for two
years without the knowledge of the old lady who was the original
owner. The tramp turned out (was later discovered) to be a distant
relative but hadn't liked to mention his presence to the old lady as
she was stone deaf.
When I turned up (arrived) for my first day at work, the hotel had
already been flourishing for five years. They were so successful that
they were always turning down (refusing) bookings and even turning
people away (telling them to leave) from the house who turned up
(came to the hotel) on the off chance. Most of the residents were
quite elderly and they all invariably turned in (went to bed) early
most evenings. During their waking hours they made up for the
quietness at night by demanding drinks, refreshments, newspapers
and anything that they could think of. The waiting was done by me
and Doris, who should have turned it in (stopped working) years ago