r/EnglishLearning • u/Official_glazer Non-Native Speaker of English • Dec 05 '25

📚 Grammar / Syntax Does this makes sense or not?

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Something just bothers me about the first 3 rows.

2.2k Upvotes

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669

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-65

u/krept0007 New Poster Dec 05 '25

Grammatically, sure.

Practically, it makes zero sense. Mailmen don't put their hand into the slot.

91

u/simonjp Native Speaker Dec 05 '25

They do in countries where they have the mail slot on the front of the house, like in the UK.

-30

u/krept0007 New Poster Dec 05 '25

I literally have a mail slot. There is no reason to put your hand in it and it would be awkward to even if you wanted. They have a cover on the exterior that you'd have to reach around.

44

u/simonjp Native Speaker Dec 05 '25

Mine has a flap on both sides. If you were to push the letter all the way through I can see your hand occasionally being through the flap briefly.

-21

u/krept0007 New Poster Dec 06 '25

The existence of or lack of an inner flap isn't relevant to the point

18

u/Winteressed New Poster Dec 06 '25

I think your inability to understand is relevant

33

u/Lostinstereo28 Native Speaker - Philadelphia US Dec 05 '25

Because your experience is the only correct one, I’m sure.

14

u/CandidLiterature New Poster Dec 06 '25

They don’t mean literally your whole hand in there waving - something only a thief would do. Letters aren’t rigid enough to get through the draught exclusion brushes you often get inside so you need to support them with your hand until they’re further through. You could touch their fingers from the inside and I’m sure it would really freak them out if you did…

6

u/conuly Native Speaker - USA (NYC) Dec 06 '25

There is no reason to put your hand in it and it would be awkward to even if you wanted.

We used to have one, and more than once we hid the spare key there so we could easily get in. Admittedly, it'd be weird for the mail carrier to go poking around for the spare key, but it's not impossible to put your hand in the mail slot if you have some reason to do so.

-32

u/seventeenMachine Native Speaker Dec 05 '25

“Mailmen don’t put their hand into a mail slot.”

“Ah, I am going to assume for absolutely no reason that you don’t know that mail slots exist at all, even though mailmen do put their hands into mail boxes so that makes no fucking sense to assume that”

20

u/dzaimons-dihh Native Speaker Dec 06 '25

that didn't make any sense either