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[–] 31 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Swap beans for meat? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

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  • [–] [S] 20 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    "for" usually means the first thing is replacing the second. If it said "with" than it'd go the other way

    https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/23360/substitute-x-for-y

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    Interesting 🤔

    I guess that makes sense because if I were paying for beans with meat, that means I’m trading meat for beans but “trading for” means the other way so I’m still kinda confused 😵‍💫

    I’ll trade you my English skills for a sac of beans 🫘

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I refuse to accept this. The title is wrong.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago*

    I agree with you. I don’t know about “wrong” but the title is ambiguous. A post on stackexchange does not make something a rule, though there may be conventions for this with some people or in some regions that are strong enough to convince some people that there is one.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    Out of curiosity what’s your native language?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Mine is English and I generally find myself to be quite knowledgeable about most grammar but this is not one I was familiar with. I even asked other English speakers I live with and they didn't hear about this rule either. It seems quite outdated at least where I live in terms of common usage

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    There’s no rule here. Note “usually means” in their comment. This is an ambiguous phrase for which some people have a convention but it’s inherently weak. Anyone writing a headline should have better instincts about usage and style.

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