Warsaw Will
Joined: December 3, 2010
Number of comments posted: 540
Number of votes received: 176
I'm a TEFL teacher working in Poland. I have a blog - Random Idea English - where I do some grammar stuff for advanced students and have the occasional rant against pedantry.
Questions Submitted
Fit as a butcher’s dog
Has anybody come across the idiom “Fit as a butcher’s dog”, ...
You’ve got another think/thing coming
If you’re over a certain age, you will probably be familiar ...
When “one of” many things is itself plural
There are all sorts of things I believed in then which I don...
Recent Comments
on: He was sat
@porsche - A couple of things - 'As in all the other example...
on: He was sat
@Brus - I'd love to be at the job interview where someone sa...
on: Same difference
First of all it's an idiom, so it doesn't really need much j...
on: your call will be answered in the order it was received
@Brus - what you are referring to is "singular they", and ma...
on: Word in question: Conversate
@FD - What right have you to call other people ignorant? You...
on: Colon and semicolon in a single sentence
I think there are several (language) problems with this text...
on: He was sat
@porsche - Sorry to put a spanner in the works, but "She was...
on: Plural of name ending in Y
@MBS - Forget my last comment. I presume "So I am writing a ...
on: Plural of name ending in Y
Forget Word, Firefox doesn't like either of them either, but...
on: Had he breakfast this morning?
@qurat - "Ali hasn't had breakfast this morning" - is perfec...
on: Try and
@Ray Riems - I think you're the one who's having difficulty ...
on: He was sat
@Brus - I'm not sure how terms can "pretend to be standard E...
on: Idea Vs. Ideal
@Melvis D. Dixon - People in glass houses. Perhaps somebody ...
on: Heaven or heaven?
I was wondering about what Ross Eiry was saying about there ...
on: Do not induce vomiting
@commincents - so you joined especially to say something you...
on: “This is she” vs. “This is her”
@Brus - demotic credentials? Is that something like street c...
on: He was sat
@Brus - OK, here's my suggestion - it's not a passive, it's ...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@Justice Jim - sorry! But I think the "pled" "pleaded" thing...
on: On Tomorrow
@Brus - Words change, this is from Oxford Dictionaries Onlin...
on: Pronunciation: aunt
@Skeeter Lewis - for example I've just heard an announcer on...
on: Pled versus pleaded
Inkhorn terms - for anyone interested, there is also quite ...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@Warsaw Will - "While many if not most of the inkhorn terms ...
on: On Tomorrow
"After moving from Chicago down to northeastern Georgia, I h...
on: On Tomorrow
@brus - I don't really see why you think the use of "demogra...
on: Pronunciation: aunt
@Skeeter Lewis and others - I agree with you that there is a...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@jayles First and foremost language is about communication....
on: Pled versus pleaded
@jayles - Meaning?...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@AnWulf - " I said Gaelic, which is a broader latter day wor...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@jayles - I'll return your question. Why use "Moon eclipse",...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@jayles -But that's exactly what already happens. Words that...
on: “I says”
It's a dialectal variation on the "historic(al) present" (ak...
on: When did we start pluralizing prepositions?
@fbf - Firstly, let me make it clear I am only talking about...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@Anwulf - " Every time one writes the -our ending in English...
on: “I says”
@porsche - I've just noticed this (a year late, but never mi...
on: Word in question: Conversate
From several commenters - "conversate is not a word" - so ho...
on: When did we start pluralizing prepositions?
Personally I like having the choice; it's a bit like among a...
on: When did we start pluralizing prepositions?
Oops! An extra 'they' slipped into that first sentence. Sorr...
on: When did we start pluralizing prepositions?
I wouldn't call this a plural, and besides (in any case), 'b...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@jayles - It's mainstream English for me too, not just for s...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@jayles - I largely agree with you about short words and nom...
on: Don’t mind if I do
douglas.bryant, porsche and JoshK have more or less said it ...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@AnWulf - Let's take them one by one. "That my scorn of L...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
Peace breaks out all round :)) @Loumi - As you're in Can...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
@Loumi- " Personally, I would never rely on newspaper articl...
on: Reference, refer.
This graph would suggest that the use of "reference" as a ve...
on: Reference, refer.
@Damian C - I wasn't making any judgements either way, simpl...
on: When “that” is necessary
@Jasper - Firstly, humble apologies for misidentifying you. ...
on: Reference, refer.
Just to mention that the verb reference has another meaning,...
on: Comma before “respectively”?
porsche et al are of course right about trolling being a typ...
on: subconscious vs unconscious
@Stu_ck - it seems to me that something similar happens with...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
@James C - Bravo. :) But naturally, we should all continue w...
on: When “that” is necessary
@jayles - By the way, although I have withdrawn from the fra...
on: When “that” is necessary
@jayles, when "that" starts a noun clause (i.e. a "that" cla...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
@Kay K - some might disagree, but I think Brits count as nat...
on: Texted
Wouldn't the easiest thing be to look in a dictionary?...
on: When “that” is necessary
Yup. Demonstrative pronouns (and determiners - "that book yo...
on: When “that” is necessary
Yes, both your examples were definitely correct. And I'm sur...
on: When “that” is necessary
"That" has several uses, but in two of them, it is possible ...
on: On Tomorrow
@Wackygrass - Most people in Britain are brought up speaking...
on: You’ve got another think/thing coming
@Corinna - you're definitely on the right track: it means to...
on: You’ve got another think/thing coming
@Corinna - we also use lawn and flower beds (some people thi...
on: You’ve got another think/thing coming
@Corinna - I was trying to be careful not to suggest that yo...
on: You’ve got another think/thing coming
Correction - Like the use of "less" instead of "fewer"...
on: You’ve got another think/thing coming
@Corinna - It all depends on how people understand "correct ...
on: You’ve got another think/thing coming
Is this a contest to see who's the oldest? HS, you seem to b...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
Oxford Advanced Learner's, Macmillan's and Longman's diction...
on: Apostrophes
@porsche - "the standard rule, whatever that may mean" - I ...
on: Team names — singular or plural
@colin shaw - from Fowler's (Third edition) - "In BrE it is ...
on: Apostrophes
@Skeeter Lewis - "If there is an example of a reputable Brit...
on: Team names — singular or plural
@colin shaw - in terms of "good grammatical rules" when usin...
on: Apostrophes
Hi Erin - in your original comment you wrote "If referring t...
on: Apostrophes
@Skeeter - as I understand it, the standard rule for when tw...
on: “Harsh but true” vs “harsh but fair”
Hi HS I've left a contact address by your comment. (What ar...
on: “Anglish”
Sorry jayles, I'm not playing any more. I'm not a Saxon nati...
on: “Anglish”
@AnWulf - "It's hard for folks who hav spent years learning ...
on: “Anglish”
@Ængelfolc - why is it that when people want to prove someth...
on: “Anglish”
@jayles - but it is precisely because I'm a non-believer tha...
on: Resume, resumé, or résumé?
@Brus and Eoin - I think you're both partly correct as regar...
on: Capitalizing After the Colon
@Samir Hafza - You can certainly have the link (I'm always h...
on: “Anglish”
The trouble about these equivalents is that many (perhaps mo...
on: Capitalizing After the Colon
@Samir Hafza - On forums like this it is absolutely fair gam...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@AnWulf - My mother tongue is modern English, not Anglo-Saxo...
on: “Harsh but true” vs “harsh but fair”
@HS - they seem pretty evenly matched in Google search, Ngra...
on: Pled versus pleaded
I had thought of pointing out to Georgy Porgy that Old Engli...
on: “Harsh but true” vs “harsh but fair”
The judge's sentence was harsh but fair, given the ferocity ...
on: Adverbs better avoided?
In the article I mentioned above, Professor Pullum finishes ...
on: Anyways
It seems to be dialectal (MWDEU), or informal (Oxford Online...
on: Adverbs better avoided?
Why on earth should you want to condemn a whole word class? ...
on: why does english have capital letters?
@Xannatos - you do realise, I hope, that it was The Libraria...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@alicelee - there's been quite a bit about it in the British...
on: Pled versus pleaded
Not longitudinally, evidently, but attitudinally [sic] ?...
on: Newfoundland Expression
I'll no doubt get jumped on for following 'It sounds like' w...
on: Newfoundland Expression
@Mommy B - It sounds like your Portuguese friend is barking ...
on: “ton” in the Victorian era
Hi Skeeter From what I understand, simply groups of people,...
on: “further” vs. “farther”
In the past they were more or less interchangeable, until th...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@alicelee - Georgy Porgy appears to be what we call a Little...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@George 7th - Your Majesty would appear to be as wilfully ig...
on: “and yet”
@Frogwhisperer - were there two men? As a conjunction, "yet"...
on: “deal to”
By searching a bit more systematically I've found a lot more...
May 24, 2013, 7:55pm • 0 vote
on: Same difference
@ J.Alexandre - Thanks for your reply, which was rather more...