speedwell2
Joined: February 3, 2004 (email not validated)
Number of comments posted: 477
Number of votes received: 385
No user description provided.
Questions Submitted
Taking the Name, in vain or in earnest
Thought of one. I’m aware that there is an area of controve...
Recent Comments
on: This construction is puzzling me...
Anonymous was me, sorry.......
on: This construction is puzzling me...
Persephone and I are on the same page, but I'd make a slight...
on: Past or Past Perfect
Wouldn't you like it better if the sentence read, "He had sp...
on: Upon/on
Persephone... subtle, subtle. LOL...
on: Upon/on
Pet, the use of "differentiated" is correct in this sentence...
on: Bloody Mary
I have a recurring problem with Scotch and soda, but... uh, ...
on: American versus British question
Both ways work for me also, and, like CQ, I had to read twic...
on: Apostrophe Catastrophe
Marriage has nothing to do with it. Ownership in common is ...
on: We, I, or my wife had a baby?
Excellent. Hooray :) Best wishes to all of you....
on: Left or right single quote?
OK, I see that they're inconsistent... and I'm not going to ...
on: Bring Brought
They're both OK, but the second is less informal and I prefe...
on: Left or right single quote?
Really? When I did desktop publishing, I was supposed to use...
on: We, I, or my wife had a baby?
Dyske still hasn't mentioned if he really is "...a father of...
on: The Nanny
I live in the US, and I've rarely heard people refer to even...
on: Left or right single quote?
I was always taught it was an apostrophe, because apostrophe...
on: Life Savers 5 Flavor
Gee, Dan, for someone who uses the internet, you sure are pr...
on: Apostrophe Catastrophe
Got one. http://www.users.bigpond.com/J_fersOffice/sample...
on: Apostrophe Catastrophe
First, absolutely, as Nicholas says. Will find cite....
on: possession with an entity which uses parenthesis
Slemmet's solution is the proper and elegant one. It's not ...
on: you all
It's "Hey, you," or "Hi, you guys."...
on: “by” vs. “of”
Of course you can possess integrity or loyalty.. That's abso...
on: Commas and Quotation Marks
Who, me? Um... yeah, that's how my partner thinks I drive, ...
on: Commas and Quotation Marks
Sure, as soon as you Brits start to drive on the correct sid...
on: Realize or realise?
OK, nice to hear from an expert. Got any links to material ...
on: politics in the kitchen...
OK, I'm going to go do actual work now.......
on: politics in the kitchen...
Not to mention what goulash looks like to the people below y...
on: L
Heretic!! Burn the heretic! Burn the.... waaaaaaait.......
on: politics in the kitchen...
As an ethnic Hungarian who regularly makes goulash (my fathe...
on: L
Oh, my, we have a word that isn't in the dictionary. Whatev...
on: you all
Oh, yes, and it happens in Spanish too, with the "familiar" ...
on: tv + video + dvd = ?
Marta, that would likely be rendered in English as something...
on: tv + video + dvd = ?
I'd go with "entertainment center," understood in context as...
on: you all
Oh, yeah, "you" and "all of you" is the way I learned it gro...
on: some troubles with passsives
Hear ye, hear ye. It hasn't been "completely incorrect" t...
on: Login into or log in to
Am I just old, or didn't we used to say "log on" to a networ...
on: Plural s-ending Possessives
I suppose I should mention that I was taught to pronounce th...
on: Plural s-ending Possessives
Yes, "Klosses" is right for more than one family member. Bu...
on: some troubles with passsives
You may also choose to simply flip prepositional phrases aro...
on: some troubles with passsives
I agree that Dave made the better choice of the two options ...
on: We, I, or my wife had a baby?
*Did* you have a baby? If so, congratulations :)...
on: We, I, or my wife had a baby?
I'd like to point out the utterly obvious, which is that you...
on: you all
Ahem. The proper spelling of the word, to the extent ther...
on: 30 minutes parking?
Actually Naeboo's first example is incorrect, but his second...
on: eat vs. have breakfast
Because the "doing" of a meal is something you must do on a ...
on: “Tilting at Windmills”
Oh, really?...
on: partner
I am a woman, and my partner of seven years (a professional ...
on: It was the coup de’grace of et all!...or was it?
When speaking English, rather than French, the accent is opt...
on: Worst
It may help to experimentally substitute "better" and "best"...
on: Something X Anything
What Nigel is suggesting by the use of "some thing" is close...
on: Right Question For this Answer (about count/rank/order)
Ha! I got it... "What number is Manmohan Singh in the suc...
on: Worst
Yes, the second "sentence" may be a fragment, but that isn't...
on: None are/None is
As a Houstonian myself, xuan, I really sympathize with you a...
on: eat vs. have breakfast
"To eat breakfast" is just more precise than "to have breakf...
on: statement
Think of a simpler example: "I have never gone to see her...
on: statement
The following sentences are both correct: "The patient ha...
on: web site or Web site
I prefer "Internet," but many newspapers and magazines are g...
on: Immediately
Just to clarify "immediately to".... You can have a sente...
on: Immediately
You can actually use "immediately" in any direction in space...
on: DOUBT vs. QUESTION
I agree 100%. No doubts here :)...
on: Sunday best
Still used in the non-ironic sense here in Texas, if the spe...
on: Worst Case or Worse Case
No, because we're too lazy to tweak the cliched phrase for g...
on: Why ‘an’ in front of an ‘h’-word?
Oh, pish-posh. :) "Modern" French (that is, not Old Fren...
on: L
Well, it depends. "Beforehand" can be an adjective or an ad...
on: Immediately
I remember reading, in American novels more than a hundred y...
on: L
Oh, Christ, I'm so asleep. I had better not come back until...
on: L
"Beforehandedly" would be the correct way to form the adverb...
on: L
"Frilly" was a terrible example, I do admit. (Monday morn...
on: Indian English: “reach”
I can think of at least one case in which American English s...
on: L
lysdexia, goossun learned English, I gather, through his con...
on: Why ‘an’ in front of an ‘h’-word?
Joachim, you're right... Chiara, I did misunderstand you, pa...
on: Worst Case or Worse Case
It's properly pronounced "worst." Laziness, however, is h...
on: Irregardless?
Madame from Nîmes, I think you're right, but do you have any...
on: silent autumn
It's not my list, id, but I'm sure that certain dialects do ...
on: Dew Claw
Sorry about the hasty nature of the previous post... Speedwe...
on: Dew Claw
According to the (online) 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia ...
on: Possessive with acromyms ending in S
Nicole, it works like this: You make the plural and the p...
on: [sic]
Yes....
on: The Approaching-Ubiquitous “The”
Another interesting example is shown in this excerpt from th...
on: B4 Dickens
Oh, I don't particularly care about being brainier-than-thou...
on: Plural of word “rum”
My experience with the M-W is that they tend to try to descr...
on: silent autumn
Bill(n), the answer to your question can be found in this th...
on: The Approaching-Ubiquitous “The”
That's true, goossun. I didn't elaborate (it seemed a bit o...
on: B4 Dickens
Brad, if you were really as smart as you hope we think you a...
on: B4 Dickens
LOL. I think Steph just meant, "There were no standard spel...
on: The Approaching-Ubiquitous “The”
Copy Dog: I honestly had not even noticed the phenomenon ...
on: Why ‘an’ in front of an ‘h’-word?
No, Chiara, "useful" and "unit," like "university" and "Euro...
on: Why ‘an’ in front of an ‘h’-word?
Hello, Frank. One of two things is happening here: 1) The...
on: Tsunami
Ladylucy, the comment in question was intended as general he...
on: Jigsaw evidence
Which doesn't at all change the fact that Olga's quoted sent...
on: [sic]
Noah, you're correct... "sic" means "thus" or "so" in Latin....
on: Coke, kleenex, xerox
Sol, the word for what is going on when a brand name becomes...
on: Tsunami
All of the 10+ dictionaries I consulted clearly specify that...
on: Tsunami
Although I may be wrong about the recent coinage; see this L...
on: Tsunami
Wendy, "tsunami" is the technical term for it. Why on earth...
on: colonel
lol degustibus. For the rest of us... if you did not unders...
on: [sic]
Yes, it is only used in a direct quotation. You can also us...
on: Credit card
That's "produced." Dyske, can we have a preview mode? Plea...
on: Credit card
hey Goossun... Happy New Year :) I'll give the common terms...
on: all
I'll merely point out that I agree with Craig's comment. Th...
April 21, 2005, 2:02pm • 0 vote
on: This construction is puzzling me...
(cries) I didn't actually miss that but I didn't want to po...