Search found 947 matches
- 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 ...
- Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:49 pm
- Forum: Applied Linguistics
- Topic: To s or not to s!
- Replies: 4
- Views: 7669
- 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...
- 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 ...
- 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: '...
- 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...
- 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. ...
- Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:26 pm
- Forum: Applied Linguistics
- Topic: Grammar question: using "can" or "could"
- Replies: 20
- Views: 56482
- 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...
- Fri Apr 09, 2010 7:27 am
- Forum: Applied Linguistics
- Topic: Silent Way
- Replies: 3
- Views: 7367
- 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...
- 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!
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!
- 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 ...
- 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...
- 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...