Teacher Discussion Forums

Fluff does the same. Gets all bossy, arrogant, disrespectful

I can't disagree more with any other hypothesis.
In my view, Fluffy is the most jolly poster around. And my favourite on AL (Metal comes close, though).

It came about that he received a promotion the following summer. He got the promotion the following summer (past) and people got to hear about it. (He already got the promotion.) It would come about that he received a promotion the following summer. Just wait and watch, it won't be long before peop...

Are we to blame for creating masses of "quaint" speakers?

In this regard, I would not blame myself, but the dogmatic curriculum writers, course designers and teacher trainers.

What can teachers do about that unfortunate situation?

In case it's unbearable, I take a tranquiliser.

I mostly heard it used by Bollywood actors, whose English I'm not always impressed with. They must have picked it up in their US/UK shooting trips, and it makes them sound like wannabes.
He went, "....." is absolutely fine for me.

I have and I was irritated.

At the moment, I'm not bothered about the usage of 'like', but I wish to defend Oxford dictionary - the Merriam-Webster online says it too. Main Entry: 3like Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, alteration of ilich, from Old English gelīc like, alike, from ge-, associative prefix + l&...

I've heard "we the government and people of America". Have you? I can't recall, nor can I find it on the net. It sounds the oddest of them all. But having come across it right here, I'd say the 'we' is not an absolute we and has a naughty break up. It sounds like a lame and contrived attempt to uni...

1. We, the government. 2. We, the people. We in 1 includes Bush and the government that he is a part of, but not the people he is addressing. We in 2 includes both Bush and the people he is addressing. For me, if America stands for 'we' then it is 'we, the government'. Our = the peoples', the countr...

Yes, I know that, but why is it different from "America will not abandon our friends"? America will not abandon our friends. David will not let my name be used in vain. America and our have subtly different referents - America (the government, the White House) and our (the country, the people). Dav...

Get it ghost written.

So, do you think the opinion in your style guide is a personal one, or is it just another precriptivist mouthing words he/she has read in other guides? I suspect readers might get bored if we are dragging this thread on, but I don't think being a descriptivist means you have to be cynical about and...

But the style guides, are written by native speakers! The website I quoted from is that of an American native speaker. The point we are discussing is actually a 'second thought' redundancy, and they are not as glaringly redundant as the other more popular redundancies. Also I suppose they get notice...

Yes, iff most of the adult native speaking population have a linguistic aptitude (if not formal linguists), know what relative adverbs are, have done a bit (if not thorough) research in that area, and know what they are saying.

Perhaps.

"Experts" would be who exactly?

Those who know more than I do.