I was at uni today for a meeting of a committee I sit on. When I walked in, there were only two other people there yet, both of them being lecturers of mine from last semester. One of them said hello to me, then said casually to the other, "Well we won't have [PTR] in our offices because he's failed all his exams".
At this point my heart stopped beating. The other lecturer must have seen the look on my face because he started laughing and said, "Too many negatives in that sentence!". It turns out that I had parsed the sentence incorrectly.
I heard this:
We won't have (PTR in our offices), because (he's failed all his exams).
Whereas my lecturer meant this:
We won't have (PTR in our offices because he's failed all his exams).
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