Would you mind doing smth?

Hello chaps and broads,

I do have on question that has been nagging me for quite a long time. I often use "would you mind doing smth" as a polite form of asking sb to do me a favor. Usually, the answer to my request is "nope, far away *smile*".

I understand that by saying this sentence a person agrees and is willing to do smth for me however I wonder where does this kind of an answer come from? I think this is some kind of a contraction form however I do not know the context or a full original sentence or phrase.

Would anyone of you mind giving me a hand with this?

Many thanks in advance, old sports! =)

would you mind doing X = would you be reluctant to do X ...
no, I wouldn't be reluctant to do X, I can do it!

does this help? if not, I may not have understood your question

It's "nope, FIRE away", not "far away"

The word "nope" refers to the first part of your question, by saying so, the person who you asked informs you in a "colloquial" manner that their see nothing against helping you/doing you a favour. "Fire away" means that they are all ears and they want you to feel free to ask them whatever is on your mind without a second's hesitation!

"Hello chaps and broads"? [Can't get past the salutation]
You believe the female equivalent of "chaps" is "BROADS"??
Seriously?
Shaking my head...

yeah, that was hilarious

Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. (siuniab)

so many nice cougars around and I am not attractive enough...

Have we seen your picture?

you can always attach your own picture to your profile........:-)

As an aside, 'broads' took me back to the books of Damon Runyon, where, he used 'dames' and 'broads' in his literature. You have to admire the original poster for being familiar with Mr Runyon's work.

@ewcia
Trying to keep a low profile, and slide in slowly.... How are you keeping?

@zielonosiwy
dang it, no fooling you (cougar...do I write "old" or something?)

@terri
broads? hmmm, too much American television, I suspect.

He'll get banned as he did on Wordreference forum :)

haha, good one, I was not banned there yet but I got some kind of 'last warning'

Look who's here! The sweetest Canadian hockey mom I've ever met.... like I've met hundreds of them, right:) Long time no hear. How long is it since we last talked here? 2 years or something?
Good to know you haven't changed dear. :)

how long HAS IT BEEN, mister grammarian :)

Hey greenguy, don't hone in Sav's flirting...his heart's all a flutter. Cut the man some slack.

Hi Sav,
I'm well (thanks). I read (skulking about on the forum) that you're heading for distant shores in July. Get yourself ready for mega-heat in AZ. Nice part of the world, but I've never been there in the summer. I'll drop you a line over the next day or two. xox

You're wrong actually. Do you want me to wipe the floor with you now or later?:))

@greeny

ok, don't get all riled up about the floor thing. You know I like you, right:)

Now back to your ignorance:)
For future reference just for you

Quirk et al quote

The perfective with temporal since-clauses

(i) Verbs used statively (cf 4.28ff) -particularly be and seem - may take
nonperfective forms when the predication is durative:

It's OK since I had it fixed.
Things are different since you've gone.
Since Pat left, it seems dull here.

The most common pattern that falls under this exception is It + BE + a
time expression, in which the verb may be in the simple present or simple
past, or have the will-future. Nonperfective forms are normal here:

It's ten years since they were last here.
How long is it since you last spoke to them?
It was ages since they last paid their bills on time.
Next Tuesday it will be six years since I became an American citizen

good, remember my family email address? Use that because bartender.net is no longer operational
hugs

p.s. >>Get yourself ready for mega-heat in AZ.
I know but I'll only be there a couple of days for this conference and leg stuff, we;ll talk about

oh, right, Pakistani lobby pushed poor Quirk to the ground :)

Actually, it doesn't take a PhD in linguistics to know that 'how long is it' in since-clauses is perfectly ok
If you knew how people speak on a daily basis, you wouldn't come out with this.
You don't need Quirk for that either.

Sav: my work "contacts" is showing bartender.net. Not sure what I have at home. Can you message me your family email through forum? Dzieks

sure thing
..and done, you should already have it

@sav
if it's 'perfectly ok' then why it sounds bad to me and to some native speakers as well? and I am afraid I'd flunk a grammar test if I wrote this perfectly ok thing

>>if it's 'perfectly ok' then why it sounds bad to me and to some native speakers as well?

I don't know that, nobody is perfect :), and I'm not taking a grammar test here (once I did that CPE btw and I aced it out with bells on with an A but it's irrelevant) They're designed to serve a specific purpose, you know that, right.

It sounds a little wrong-ish to me, but it doesn't grate on my ears and I probably wouldn't give it even a passing thought. Apparently, it's a British thing. Yes, British, not American.

Swan, in his Practical English Usage states that in British English, present and past tenses are common in the structure It is/was...since..., e.g.

It's a long time since the last meeting.
It was ages since that wonderful holiday.

American English prefers perfect tenses in this structure (To the horror of those on this forum who numerous times have stated that Americans not only do not use, but do not even know present perfect tenses.)

It's been a long time since the last meeting.
It had been ages since that wonderful vacation.

thank you both for your imputs

Ok, but we're talking about two stative verbs here, be and seem.
And wouldn't something like 'it hasn't seemed right since he left' clash more with you?
I've heard the construction 'how long is/was it' on the radio a lot, I mean like hundreds of times, and I only listen to the US radio because I can't stand BrE. Not that I don't like it, it just makes me sick for many reasons:)) Btw, COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) gets 159 hits for perfective and 108 for simple and it comes from a bunch of local rags, major news outlets, newspapers, articles, etc.

Quirk also writes in this since-clause chapter:

quote,

In informal AmE, and increasingly in informal BrE, nonperfective forms are
commonly used in matrix clauses with since-clauses and in clauses with
preposition or adverb since