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Thread: Doubt - can i use "fly" as verb with inanimate objects witout wings.

  1. #1
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    Doubt - can i use "fly" as verb with inanimate objects witout wings.

    As per definition of fly(verb) in oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary point#2, I think I can say "Bullets fly".
    Please note that here I also want to confirm if I can use the verb "fly" with objects without wings.
    Is this a valid usage of "fly" as a verb?

    Thank you.

  2. #2
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    "Time flys" is a common cliche - time doesn't have (literal) wings.

    Being more literal - balloons fly, so wings aren't needed.

    If I pick you up and throw you into a bouncy castle, for the time your feet aren't touching the ground (or bouncy castle), you are flying - if not very well...

    Try reading some good authors to get used to verbs in every kind of context - metaphorical and literal.

    For flying type books try a Biggles novel - not great literature, but good fun and very easy to read...

    Less ironic answers may be found in a forum devoted to Basic English - so I suggest you fly there for a more basic answer to your question, and come back here when you have some questions about literature.

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    Thanks for the thrashing.
    It reminds me I am not good at grammar. I don't read much either apart from work.
    Biggles novel's new to me. Will give it a try. My type is Harry Potter and stuff like that.

    But I got my answer.

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    I think it was a fair question. And the answer's on the money. Though to be absolutely pedantic Time flies is a cliché.

    Stick around anyway. There are no tested criteria for membership.

  5. #5
    Pièce de Résistance Scheherazade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mal4mac View Post
    "Time flys" is a common cliche - time doesn't have (literal) wings.

    Being more literal - balloons fly, so wings aren't needed.

    If I pick you up and throw you into a bouncy castle, for the time your feet aren't touching the ground (or bouncy castle), you are flying - if not very well...

    Try reading some good authors to get used to verbs in every kind of context - metaphorical and literal.

    For flying type books try a Biggles novel - not great literature, but good fun and very easy to read...

    Less ironic answers may be found in a forum devoted to Basic English - so I suggest you fly there for a more basic answer to your question, and come back here when you have some questions about literature.
    Is this needed? Why so harsh?
    ~
    "It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
    ~


  6. #6
    Registered User kiki1982's Avatar
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    Or if, in frustration, you throw something at the wall, or you throw a plate at you partner , it also 'flies through the room'.

    Why so harsh, though?
    One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.

    "Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)

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