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submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 95 points 2 weeks ago

We "go" to lots of things that aren't places. Im going to prove it with this sentence.

[-] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago

Can you do it after we go to lunch?

[-] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

I think I'm going to vomit.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

No, my stomach is going to town with all this regurgitation.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago

In English, ‘go to’ can be used as the future subjunctive tense of the verb being conjugated.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Sounds fancy. I hope it's not expensive to use.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

Planning to go into detail, or was that it?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

if you insist ;-)

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

I've got to go think about it for a second, and then I get to realize what it meant.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm going to go to sleep.

Double going!

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago

you don't go places when you sleep?

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

As a stress sleepwalker, yes I do.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

I wish I did, I don't dream so for me it's pretty much just skipping anywhere from 6 to 10 hours and suddenly it's the next morning.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

I sure do. Just last night, I went to a store that was closed. The shopkeeper had hired a very tall and furry troll to guard the store at night. She said the shop is closed, and seemed a bit irritated. We shook hands for no apparent reasons, and then I went away. I sat into a car, we drove off, accidentally drove off road, plowed through the 1 m thick snow, fell off a cliff. We nearly crashed into a house, but somehow managed to land on a road right next to it.

That’s why you don’t try to do your shopping in the middle of the night.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

In Spanish, they talk about hunger and thirst as if they are physical objects.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I think that's more that tener (to have) doesn't always mean a physical thing.

As an example in spanish they use tener for age. As in tengo 20 años literally is "I have 20 years" but it means "I am 20"

Or ten cuidado means "take care" or "be careful" but literally is more like "have care". Both phrases use tener in a nonphysical sense in the same way as in english we use "to have". Like to have compassion or to have doubts.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

but it works because abstract concepts are things an individual can own.

Like "Tengo quidado" is "i own the the abstract concept of care".

it could work in English, but it just sounds strange or poetic, like "i have hunger"

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

German too. Ich habe Hunger. Sie haben Durst.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Sie haben Durst

Durst

Heh, Fred Thirst

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

"It's time to achieve unconsciousness, kiddo."

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

The void calls ceaselessly, child.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

In Dutch “go” means to go do a thing as well and I use it English in a similar fashion. Never thought of it weird before

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Edit-preface: I am not a grammarian. I don’t know what the technical names for the different types of “to” are or if they are even recognized as distinct by experts in the field.

English is does indeed use “go” to mean “go do a thing”, but not with directional “to” (as in “go to the library”).

“Go run!”, “Go running”, “I’m going running”, and “I’m going to run” are all valid uses. (In that last case, the “to” is not a directional “to”, but is actually part of the infinitive verb “to run”, as in “I want to run”). However, you wouldn’t say “Go to run!” to tell someone to run.

"Go to run" could make sense with a causal “to” (“Go, in order that you might run”) but that separates “go” and “run” in to separate actions. Causal “to” is the “to” in “push to open” and “press F to pay respects” this is not the “to” in “go to sleep”

“Go to sleep” feels like it is in the directional sense, like "go to bed"

Edit: Now you’ve got me thinking. “Go to sleep” and “go to bed” are a little unusual . “Go to [location]“ without an article is usually reserved for proper nouns or pronouns (“Go to France”, “go to Curicó”, “go to Walmart”, “go to John“ “go to her”). When the location is a general noun, you usually use an article or a proper/pro-noun in the possessive form (“go to a restaurant”, “go to the party”, “go to Bob’s house”, “go to your room”). So what makes “bed” and “sleep” so special? The only other case I can think of at the moment is “go to ground” and that is different because it is an idiom, and the rule for idioms is “they mean what they mean”

Edit-edit: meals don’t use an article either: “to lunch”, “to dinner”, “to breakfast”.

Edit-edit-edit: AAAAAH! It applies to some other prepositions too: “in bed”, “at lunch”; but not “under the bed”. What is going on‽

Edit-edit-edit-edit: Causal “to” might be a use of the infinitive case?

Edit-edit-edit-edit-edit: “go to work” does not use an article either.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

If you have trouble going to sleep then try falling asleep instead.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

I'd rather leave a piss.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That's what i say in the bathroom, like it's a team sport.
Goooo Poop! 🤾🏅

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

I wish it was. I wish it was...

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

I'm going to go, to my bed, to sleep.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

The word "go" has lots of meanings besides physically moving to a place. It also means to change state ("the milk went bad", "he'll go crazy when he finds out") and to indicate immediate future tense ("I'm going to read this book now"). Not to mention some other less relevant uses.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

It's a state.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I think it's going to make me go insane

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

I'm 90% sure that it was originally in the form of "to go <there/place> and " and has just been shortened over time. A refined colloquialism, if you go for that sort of thing

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Sleep is my go to when I'm tired!

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

The Dreaming

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Instructions unclear, summoned Cthulhu.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

In german we say either say "go" or "laying to sleep/rest"

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Huh that's funny, "laying to rest" in English is an expression for burying someone after they have died

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah we also say "they are not yet under the world of the living" if someone is still asleep

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

We also call the event of publicly watching soccer matches etc. "public viewing" so...

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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
169 points (91.2% liked)

Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

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