I saw a comment on facebook. I’m just curious if this sentence is okay, not weird?
We must be humble when we behave.
Thank you!!!
I’m wondering whether it was taken out of context, but in any case, it would be unusual to say, “We must be humble when we behave.” I’m not even sure what that would mean. When we talk about ‘behaving’, that means conducting ourselves according to accepted norms within the society: being polite, being courteous, showing good manners, not cussing/swearing, not saying or doing things that would make others upset.
“We must be humble” is typically used in religious contexts, like praying. “We must be humble when we pray” is, to me, a religious person’s way of saying, “Don’t expect God to answer your prayers.” But I’m not sure what it’s supposed mean to say that you have to be modest or ‘humble’ while you are exhibiting good behaviour. “We must be humble when we behave?”
Thank you, brucenator. I think someone saw the picture above and made a comment.
However, I think she or he translated Chinese into English word by word.
That’s why I wasn’t sure if it makes sense.
How about this one, “we behave in a humble manner”? Does it make sense to you?
Ah ok, yeah, that makes more sense. We must behave in a humble manner. (We must conduct ourselves with modesty.)
And I didn’t see the picture before. It’s like saying: Be humble. You won’t stay young and appealing forever. (There’s a bad pun in there somewhere: you won’t stay young and a peeling forever.) It’s like when a young person says, “I’m such a hot mess when I get up in the morning” (‘hot’ is supposed to mean ‘appealing’ or ‘sexy’), sometimes you feel like saying, “Yeah, you’re not that good looking. You’re just young. Now go take a shower.”
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Is it okay to learn more usage of the word “behave”.
What I know is like, behave yourself.
And all I checked in the dictionary is like, behave in a… or behave like…
So we usually put something behind “behave” to modify it?