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- PanassumOctober 2020
GIVE ANSWERS
AussieInBgOctober 2020 There is a considerable difference in the meanings of ”to be aware of sth” and ”to be conscious of sth” and at a practical level. Even many native English speakers don’t understand the difference and think that these terms are highly synonymous. |
PanassumOctober 2020 Thank you very much for this detailed answer. It’s like a small essay, usefull to think actively and to become conscious of the difference. In this way I will keep these two phrases in mind
gfarnabOctober 2020 Practically not, but if you want to delve deeper ”being aware” tends to be used for things which ought to be retained for shorter stints. It’d sound a tad off to say ”you must be conscious of your plane departing in 15 minutes”. This, I posit, is because ”awareness” is most often used in the sense of Aufmerksamkeit, whereas consciousness is used for ”Bewusstsein, Besinnung”. |
PanassumOctober 2020 Thank you very much for your additional explanation. I learn a lot by different perspectives and wordings on the same issue.
exRangerNovember 2020 Both are basically about ”knowing” of something and @ the end of the day are quite similar in meaning. The description below, which starts out stating ”there is a considerable difference in the meanings” ends up with offering examples that illustrate how these are, in fact, very similar in most instances. leave it to an Australian to muck things up, especially the English Language. |
AussieInBgNovember 2020 Sure, both are basically giving the gist about ”knowing” - if your level of language somewhere around A2 or B1. A person with B1 English can certainly do a lot of things with their level of language such as express most requests, deal with the main points of communication in common situations that arise at work or socially, travel freely in an English speaking country, understand the bulk of what is happening in most Hollywood movies and even get most of the jokes in American sitcoms.
Now, if you are getting into B2 and beyond, you should be expressing yourself in much more abstract terms and at a greater depth of meaning than B1. The original topic poster has definitely been demonstrating language skills reaching beyond a B1 level - and hence his perfectly framed query about the differences between ”being aware of sth” and ”being conscious of sth”.
Explanations of definitions and differences - with examples - are important for language learners to actually get productive with and retain vocabulary and expressions. I can say that my explanation has worked - the poster later productively used the expression ”to be conscious of sth” in a highly correct and even witty manner. Mission accomplished.
Many people who teach English are hardly aware of things like two similar words or phrases being in some way merely weakly synonymous let alone conscious of how to express their differences in meaning to students beyond a B1 level. This often, unfortunately, applies to even native speakers of English. It generally comes down to laziness, sloppiness or general ineptitude. An inability to provide a genuine well thought out explanation usually gets explained away with bluffing phrases like ”oh, they mean the same thing” or a short two or three word definition which barely even gives the gist of the meaning of the words or expressions.
Yes, there is a substantial difference between ”to be aware of sth” and ”to be conscious of sth”, isn’t there...
Anyway, statements such as ”illustrate how these are, in fact, very similar in most instances.” are merely ranting blahblahblah when there is a lack of demonstrable evidence to support them. Hint: to actually substantiate your statement, you are supposed to take explicit examples and demonstrate in a logical manner why they have essentially the same meaning - if you can of course.
As for your expressed bitter attitude towards Australians... whatever.