It means that you can place a specific number on the number of days left in a person’s life? I’m not sure I understand the question because the meaning of this one is pretty easy to see. Normally it is unclear when your death will be, but if someone tells you that your days are numbered they are implying that they possess the exact knowledge of what number of days you have left to live. They don’t usually mean that literally but the literal meaning is pretty clear.
Or the number of days since their birth? That’s the simpler explanation.
“Those apples are numbered” = “we know how many apples there are right now”
No, that does not make equal literal sense to what I said. Because days that are in the past are gone, we don’t have them anymore. We refer to moving through time as “killing” time or as “losing” time, in English we don’t tend to think of the past as something we currently have. The future is something we have or will have, the past is something we had and no longer have.
Exactly! In English! Which this person does not know!
You seem to be getting pretty confused here. We’re talking about the literal meanings, that is to say the ones that someone who doesn’t have a strong grasp of English should know. Metaphors and idioms and so on are famously difficult for those without a strong grasp on the language, but I am arguing that this is not one of those. This is a phrase with a straightforward literal meaning, unlike such phrases as “pulling your leg.”
Idioms and phrasing in English are not.
What’s the literal meaning of “his days are numbered”?
It means that you can place a specific number on the number of days left in a person’s life? I’m not sure I understand the question because the meaning of this one is pretty easy to see. Normally it is unclear when your death will be, but if someone tells you that your days are numbered they are implying that they possess the exact knowledge of what number of days you have left to live. They don’t usually mean that literally but the literal meaning is pretty clear.
Or the number of days since their birth? That’s the simpler explanation.
“Those apples are numbered” = “we know how many apples there are right now”
If you don’t know the context, you could easily assume that’s the meaning.
No, that does not make equal literal sense to what I said. Because days that are in the past are gone, we don’t have them anymore. We refer to moving through time as “killing” time or as “losing” time, in English we don’t tend to think of the past as something we currently have. The future is something we have or will have, the past is something we had and no longer have.
Exactly! In English! Which this person does not know!
What’s the meaning of “pulling your leg” vs the literal definition?
You seem to be getting pretty confused here. We’re talking about the literal meanings, that is to say the ones that someone who doesn’t have a strong grasp of English should know. Metaphors and idioms and so on are famously difficult for those without a strong grasp on the language, but I am arguing that this is not one of those. This is a phrase with a straightforward literal meaning, unlike such phrases as “pulling your leg.”
Obviously not the case, since you had to use the phrase “in English, what we mean is…” You had to give a cultural context.