“I know I’m asking for a lot.”
Can I say…
- I know I’m asking too much. (Can I omit “for” after ask?)
- I know I demanded too much. (Can I use “demand” in the sentence?)
Thank you!
- Yes you can. You can also say “I know I’m asking a lot.”
- The sentence is fine. But “demand” is a more forceful word. If you were asking for a favor from a friend you wouldn’t say demand.
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You might consider asking this kind of question in the forum called “Learning English Forum - Ask a Tutor”".
I’m asking too much. IS NOT EQUAL TOI’m asking for too much.
Both sentences are correct. But they do not mean the same thing.
Examples:
(1) Give me ten thousand US dollars, please. Am I asking for too much?
(2) What is your name? Where do you live? What kind of work do you do? When did get interested in cryptocurrency? Do you have pets? Why don’t you eat meat? Oh, excuse me, am I asking too much?
I know I demand too much. = I am aware of the fact that I demand too much. = I am aware of the fact that I ask for too much.
I know I demanded too much = I am aware of the fact that I demanded too much. = I am aware of the fact that I asked for too much.
I know I’m asking for a lot. = I know I’m asking a great deal.
Asking for something IS NOT EQUAL TO asking something
Sometimes the “for” can be dropped and not change the meaning, and still make sense, and still be correct English.
Example:
He asked for the salt and pepper.
He asked for the time. = He asked the time.
“a lot” = “a large amount”
“a lot” IS NOT NECESSARILY “too much”
“too” indicates there is a problem.
Example:
It rained a lot yesterday.
It rained too much yesterday, and the streets are still flooded.
It rained too much yesterday for us to play golf.
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Wow! Teacher Nia, I’m impressed. Thank you so so so much. I learned a lot (not too much :). Have a nice day!
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Thank you for your good wishes, Lily. And thank you for demonstrating your understanding of the difference between “a lot” and “too much”. You have a nice day, too! 
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Very good. I can add some examples:
ask for smth= request smth (German: bitten um, Russian: просить), e.g.:
to ask for advice;
he asked for the manager;
has anybody asked for me?
she asked for the increase in pay
To ask smth= say smth in order to have an answer, to get some information (German: fragen; Russian: спрашивать):
to ask a question;
to ask the way;
to ask the time
Some other interesting examples:
to ask after = to enquire about somebody’s health: My mother asked about you.
Or; Two months later he asked her hand in marriage.
She asked to speek.
he asked to open the window.
Every language is interesting and the study is enjoyable!
Good luck!
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Most of your sentences are really unnatural.
Asking for ‘too much’ is more when you’re complaining that someone hasn’t done something you’ve asked for. It’s kinda idiomatic. More likely still would be ‘is that too much to ask’.
‘I told him to have the dishes done when i got home - was that too much to ask ?’
‘You’ve still not done the dishes. I need help round the house, what, am I asking too much here or what ?’
‘He asked her in marriage’ is gibberish.
You also don’t ‘require’ about somebody’s health.
It’s probably best for the sake of English learners reading these forums if you refrain from giving erroneous examples.
I appreciate your notices, my dear Leuropeatite, but don’t be so arrogant and don’t draw a hasty conlusion, please!
All my examples I took from the books or newspapers which I had read before.
As a language teacher I like working with the vocabulary of diffeerent languages.
The example with ‘marriage’ is provbably from Ch. Dickens. It can be old-fashinated, but I’ve found also in the Oxford Dictionary:
He asked my father for my hand in marriage.
In the same dictionary you can see another example:
If I see him, I’ll tell him you were asking after him (in the meaning ‘enquire about his health or how he is going’)
Kind regards!
- You’re a language teacher. Irrelevant.
- ‘He asked my father for my hand in marriage.’ is a genuine sentence, your other sentence “Two moths later he asked her in marriage.” A moth is a flying insect related to butterflies. The rest of the sentence ‘he asked her in marriage’ is gibberish and makes no sense regardless whether people wrote like that long ago.
You also don’t ask someone how ‘he is going’ - you ask someone ‘how’s it going’ but you ask -someone- how HE is DOING.
I’m not gibbing on your English, it’s very good, but don’t go around trying to teach people unnatural or just plain wrong English. It’s damaging.
His examples were fine, but his proofreading was off. All of the issues you pointed out were obviously typos.
I agree that when you point out examples for learners, you should be extra diligent, but your response seemed disproportionate. After all, you did it yourself when you wrote that one does not “require” after someone’s health. He didn’t say that. He wrote “enquire” which is the right word.
No. He wrote ‘require’ and has since edited it. He’s also purporting to be a language tutor. He shouldn’t be giving English lessons.
Whether it was acceptable in the past or not, he shouldn’t be giving examples of language that sound totally wrong in 2017. ‘He asked her in marriage’ is total gibberish and doesn’t make any sense. Although he has since edited that too despite the fact that he argued that it was fine.
Any learner trying to use that will sound clumsy, awkward and non-fluent.
are you a english native ?
Yes.
Teacher Nia, can I make sure about the examples you made again?
He asked for the time. = He asked the time.
He asked for the salt and pepper. = He asked the salt and pepper. —> Is that right?
The time example is correct. In the salt and pepper example, only the first sentence with “for” works.
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The forum doesn’t allow me to reply to the posting of yours this is a response to directly, so…
Language teacher or not, he was trying to help somebody. My advice is to appreciate that and show some respect. Just post your corrections if you see any errors. Learners will read your response, too → problem solved.
Welcome to Lingq
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Posting erroneous corrections to learners is one of the blights of online language learning. Check out italki - this is rampant there. People who think they know better because they’re ‘teachers’ correcting already correct English because it sounds better to them.
When someone posts plain wrong English and backs it up with ‘i’m a teacher’, it’s not only a right but a responsibility to put this straight where all can see. It’s certainly not disrespectful.
If you’re happy letting people erreonously correct the writing attempts of a language learner and having forums and other online platforms descend into a mishmash of incorrect, wrong, harmful, sometimes right, right in the past but not any more, etc etc language, good for you. I however will point it out.
Not for my benefit, for the benefit of the learner who may take on board and start using crazy, unnatural or just plain wrong language because someone justified their correction errors by giving credentials.
I would say it is not about letting or not letting people do something you don’t like here. You will always be powerless against what others do on a forum like this one. If your goal is to change people’s behaviour, you should influence them positively, otherwise they will never listen to you. Evgueny called your posting arrogant. This is the natural reaction you will always get.
Btw. I don’t think the problem of pseudo-corrections is by any means as ubiquitous here as you say it is on italki. If you see one occurrence, why not stay factual and calm instead of using exaggerations?
‘He asked her in marriage’ is gibberish.
It is not. If someone says a phrase like this to me I will ask if what they meant was “he asked for her hand in marriage”. I would recognize the meaning although the phrase is not correct. Gibberish would be something you can’t understand at all.
‘require’
He clearly used this as a synonym, never claimed it was used in a natural way here.
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Speaking of idioms, I think we are “beating a dead horse” with this thread.
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