7 comentários em “I have a doubt x I have a question”

1. Roberto disse:
   March 12th, 2007 at 2:50 am

   Hi Alessandro,

   It was a very nice observation of everyday English.
   But I think once I heard someone ask me: Any doubt? I simply answered, “no doubt”. As you´ve explained one must have asked: Any question?

   Thanks for you help.

   Roberto

2. Mary Ziller disse:
   March 12th, 2007 at 9:13 am

   Alessandro,

   When People say “I have a doubt” instead of “I have a question”, they will be misunderstood by native speakers of English.

   Doubt = disbelief

   If after an explanation by your teacher, you say “I have a doubt” your teacher will be offended. He will think that you are doubting (disbelieving) the validity of what he has taught you or explained to you.

   Doubt is not a neutral way of asking for information, it is telling the other person about your disbelief. It means as your article said “Estou em dúvida.”

   When a native speaker of English hears “I have a doubt” he braces himself for a philasophical challenge to his own beliefs.

   When challenged, we tend to become defensive: who doesn’t want to keep his system of personal life philosophy intact and maintain his personal system of beliefs?

   There is a joke that illustrates this. An ESL teacher was teaching a lesson. A student interrupted several times saying “But I have a doubt” and then asked a question. The teacher tried to be accomodating and answer the question the sutdent posed, but with every interruption he was getting noticeably more and more irritated. Finally after the 5th interruption, he became exasperated. When the student again prefaced his question with the sentence, “I have a doubt” the teacher cut him off abruptly and countered, “Why are you even here in my class, if you are going to doubt everything I say? If you would accept what I am trying to teach you, instead of doubting everything I say every 5 minutes, maybe you and the other students would be able to learn something worthwhile.”

   Of course the student was not aware that his way of posing questions was not a neutral way to ask for information. But the teacher felt disbelieved and challenged (his teaching credentials attacked on some level) instead of flattered that the student was trying to think along with the lecture and follow it with understanding (accepting all the things that the teacher was teaching. The student was actually accepting everything the teacher said, but the teacher felt like the student was rejecting everything he was teaching because the student used the word “doubt” instead of the neutral word “question”).

   The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is one way to understand how the word doubt feels to an American.

   Where there is doubt, let me sow faith. (Onde houver dúvida, que eu leve a Fé).

3. Adam disse:
   March 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

   Mary, that was an excellent explanation of the phrase “I have a doubt.”

4. Anonymous disse:
   April 6th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

   congratulations Marry;
   magnificent explanation.

   see you
   Deniz.

5. Ginaldo disse:
   November 26th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

   Conheci este ótimo blog a pouco tempo e leio este post muitos meses depois de postado, mas não posso deixar de comentar que, pelo que entendi, dizer “I have a doubt” equivale a dizer “Duvido!” (ou duvi-de-ó-dó! - rsrsrs)

6. Alessandro (administrador) disse:
   November 26th, 2007 at 6:13 pm

   Ginaldo,

   É mais ou menos essa a idéia. rsrsrs

7. Mary disse:
   January 8th, 2008 at 7:55 am

   Excelente explicação Mary. Congratullations!!!!