Having dinner with she who must be obeyed this evening and I was updating her on the latest news from the ongoing stupidity in Bangkok.
A small bomb went off in a police box, I told her.
It exploded?
Yes.
So why don’t you say, in English, “it went on”? It went off, sounds like it didn’t work.
pause, damn she is right.
Well, that is just what we say. (an incisive explanation I feel). I can’t think of an occasion when we would say that something goes on.
pause, she is thinking.
How about: Life goes on. Unless a bomb goes off!
She is too smart for me sometimes.