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Mistakable versus ambiguous



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
"The radio" versus "The TV" | Progressive Forms
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Mistakable versus ambiguous Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:53 am  Mistakable versus ambiguous
 

Hi All,

A user sent me a mail and wanted to have some more rights to folders and files on the server.
I gave him but to the wrong folders because it wasn't clear for me what he wants to do.

How to say?

Sorry, your request was mistakable but I will correct it
or
Sorry, your request was ambiguous but I will correct it.

Is it correct if I say,
You formulated your request... or should I say
You made your request...
Attila
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 12 Jul 2006
Posts: 127
Location: Hungary

Mistake Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:22 am  Mistake
 

Hi Attila,

I'm not competely sure what the mistake was about and so I'll stick to your two words:

mistakable and ambiguous

The first word, I'm afraid, is not known to me and really only exists for me in the opposite: unmistakable, meaning cannot be doubted. I suppose that what you want to say is something along the lines: open to misinterpretation or more simply - unclear.

In that respect your other word - ambiguous is suitable as it suggests that something is not clear and could easily be misunderstood.

Alan
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Mistake or ambiguous Thu Oct 05, 2006 13:39 pm  Mistake or ambiguous
 

Hi Alan,

I wanted to say that the information he provided was uncomplete thus unclear for me. I mean it wasn't ambiguous rather not enough detailed.

I made a Google search and found 81 000 site with the word mistakable.

mistakable = Capable of being mistaken or misunderstood

But I prefer to believe a native speaker than the Internet because the Internet is mostly written by not English people.
Attila
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 12 Jul 2006
Posts: 127
Location: Hungary

Mistakable versus ambiguous Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:03 am  Mistakable versus ambiguous
 

Hi Attila

''uncomplete'' is not the correct word; the correct word is 'incomplete'.

While words starting with the prefix 'un' are very common, many words take the prefix 'in', which also means 'not'. Some examples are 'inaccurate', 'invalid' and 'insane'.

Many words take still other prefixes to form the negatives. Do you know any of the other prefixes or words that are formed by using them?
Canadian45
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 184
Location: Canada

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"The radio" versus "The TV" | Progressive Forms
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