Search found 947 matches

by JuanTwoThree
Thu Nov 18, 2010 8:10 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: (?) I use to do it
Replies: 37
Views: 68931

I wonder who 'John Walden' might be. The writing style has a familiar ring to it: "My own view is that the 'd' shouldn't be there. Marking for the past twice has no precedent that I can think of, English doesn't usually do anything twice. But there are far too many people who think the 'd' is there ...
by JuanTwoThree
Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:49 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: To s or not to s!
Replies: 4
Views: 7669

Nouns being adjectives aren't plural: Ten pound note, three mile walk, crop consumption, meat consumption.
by JuanTwoThree
Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:41 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Grammar question: Your "chance / chances" of getti
Replies: 4
Views: 19858

Me, I don't like 1 and 2 so much. I care even less for plurals in the negative or restrictive: * There are no chances of you(r) getting the job. * There are few chances.......................... I'd go for 'is no chance' and 'is little chance'. The ones that I don't particularly like google in the t...
by JuanTwoThree
Wed Sep 29, 2010 6:34 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Verbs that are both action and state in p perfect continuous
Replies: 3
Views: 14416

Wot Stephen sed. You have to ask yourself what 'I've been feeling ill for a week' and 'I've felt ill for a week" mean one would have said three or four days ago, which are 'I'm feeling ill' and 'I feel ill' respectively. What's the difference between these is the same question. Although there's not ...
by JuanTwoThree
Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:30 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Is "prejudiced" a verb or adjective?
Replies: 6
Views: 13655

Present passives have to have an active form. 'I am prejudiced against women by my upbringing' can be made into 'My upbringing prejudices me against women'. Similarly 'The window's broken' is subtly different from 'The window's broken every weekend' ('Somebody breaks.........'). In a context like: '...
by JuanTwoThree
Sun Sep 19, 2010 8:15 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Is use of the future continuous incorrect here ?
Replies: 15
Views: 75072

"As a result of this temporary setback they are continuing to disappear and for the next few years many of the world's languages will be continuing to disappear unless an effort is made to save them " OK, it's imaginary but it's a recondite context in which a recondite structure might be used. You n...
by JuanTwoThree
Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:41 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Breaktime!
Replies: 20
Views: 29305

Rp , aren't you thinking of the 'who vs which rule' or the 'rule' about not using 'that' after a comma? Or the silly one which is demolished over and over again here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=36 because yours is one that is new to me and which I must have been breaking all my life. ...
by JuanTwoThree
Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:26 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Grammar question: using "can" or "could"
Replies: 20
Views: 56482

Hey Larry. Nobody hangs about so much any more.
by JuanTwoThree
Mon Apr 19, 2010 7:41 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: sorry...
Replies: 1
Views: 5864

I'm sorry but cutting and pasting your assignments to this board and expecting an answer is to have an unrealistic picture of the habitués of this place as virtual bellboys, ready to do the most inane things for anybody who snaps their fingers at them. The best you can hope for is a jokey answer lik...
by JuanTwoThree
Fri Apr 09, 2010 7:27 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Silent Way
Replies: 3
Views: 7367

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by JuanTwoThree
Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:44 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Using "in" and "on"
Replies: 6
Views: 8929

The first thing to point out to Spanish speakers is that "en" is by no means the equivalent of "in" in English. If anything, I suspect that it's more often "on", statistically. Not that it IS "on". Spanish prepositions really are a very different system altogether. Then topology helps. Establish, if...
by JuanTwoThree
Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:38 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 44139

You might be interested in this:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2009

To nit-pick, we really dropped the 2nd person singular (thou, thee, thy, thine) and now only use the plural (you, you, your, yours). If that also interests you then you've come to the right place!
by JuanTwoThree
Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:50 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 44139

Woody, I'd have thought that we both have the same highly developed gut feeling for standard BrE because we went through the same mills for the first twenty years of our lives and share a very similar culture. If anything, I'm probably losing mine by not living in the UK: my NES circle is about six ...
by JuanTwoThree
Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:10 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 44139

It's not about wrongness, as such. Saying that a widespread usage by other NSs sounds odd is not to say it's wrong. It's more like thinking that two colours clash horribly and finding it strange and interesting that anybody would think not. Unless it's "should of". Which is plain wrong. I don't thin...
by JuanTwoThree
Mon Feb 15, 2010 7:40 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: (?) I use to do it
Replies: 37
Views: 68931

If anybody feels the need to take MrPedantic to task over [sometimes misspelt "didn't used to"] before they do, they really should read the thread that fluffy links to above, as well as the marathon previous thread that is linked to in it, and ask themselves very seriously if there is much else to a...