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.”
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.