Elicit
<<The people who speak it natively. >>
How far though? Where is the line in the sand? At what point does something which is said often, though in the eyes of most incorrect, become correct? Is "I could of done it" correct yet? Is "their" and "they're" really interchangeable?
<<At what point does something which is said often, though in the eyes of most incorrect, become correct?>>
When most no longer consider it to be incorrect.
For example, over time we stopped using "thou" and started using "you" for both the singular and plural. When did singular-you become correct? When most people used it that way. Sometime later some prescriptivist got around to updating his grammar to reflect the new standard. But it was the people's usage, not the prescriptivist's blessing, that made the usage "correct".
I'm a native English speaker and I don't consider it to be incorrect. I ask that one not use it.
>><<The people who speak it natively. >>
How far though? Where is the line in the sand? At what point does something which is said often, though in the eyes of most incorrect, become correct? Is "I could of done it" correct yet? Is "their" and "they're" really interchangeable?<<
One should note that those are orthographic errors, not "errors" in speech, which are a wholly different matter unto themselves.
How about "I could care less". This is a more realistic one, because it's actually getting to the point where it's on the line.
I've never gotten that one.
***How about "I could care less"***
This is the American way of expressing this and to Brits it seems illogical. In many ways the American use of English is more logical than the British but I don't think it is in this case, and when we hear Americans say that they "could care less" then we assume they actually could if they tried, whereas when we say "I couldn't care less" it means exactly that.....we really could not care less about whatever it is we're going on about.
It's the same when Americans say they had to go to THE hospital but they never, ever tell us which hospital in particular - it's so confusing. Do they ever declare at the end of the day that they are off to THE bed? I very much doubt it in that instance. Why differentiate here?
As the Windmill Theatre's Laura Henderson (as played by Judi Dench) smilingly said to this young American GI soldier in the bomb ravaged London of 1942 in the film "Mrs Henderson Presents": "Oh - you're American! - strange people but very polite!" ;-)
***The thing is that "elicit" is very much a highly formal literary word***
From a British perspective I have to disagree with that statement - fair enough the use of the word "elicit" is not really one most people would use every day for the simple reason that circumstances suitable for its use in the first place are not lilkely to occur all that often, but when they are then it's a very appropriate word to use in or out of a literary context.
It expresses in one word the act of gleaning or wheedling information of of someone or determining all facts on any particular issue.
Mistaking it for the word "illicit" would, in my mind, be an absolutely wondferful Malapropism, like saying that swine flu is a highly contiguous infection.
Well guys nice to see a lot of discussion going on but no one seems to be answering my question directly . So I need a direct answer i.e. in terms of No & Yes . Is that sentence correct or not ?
Well , I guess that that usage is wrong by the tone of your replies .
>>This is the American way of expressing this and to Brits it seems illogical.<<
While I won't deny that a lot of Americans use that expression, generally we know that it's incorrect and use "couldn't care less" instead. And the people who use the expression usually aren't in the mood to discuss the error (so I have learned), so it goes uncorrected most of the time.
"Elicit the fun within" looks like a dictionary-based translation. I think most Americans would wonder what you actually meant to say.
It would be quite strange if the average American actually said that, really...
How do you say it in your language, and we could help you find a better translation.