Warsaw Will
Joined: December 3, 2010
Number of comments posted: 568
Number of votes received: 185
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
“reach out”
I’m not usually a peever, but I do make an exception for bus...
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: who vs. whom
@RFG - I presume you're playing with the rules with your def...
on: Hey
@Katie - "What's up?" is an interesting one for me,as in Br...
on: who vs. whom
There seems to have been one seem too many there....
on: who vs. whom
@Hairy Scot - I accept that there has been a problem with gr...
on: Pronunciation of indefinite article “a”
A bit more on pronunciation: Edinburgh J - Many, perhaps...
on: Pronunciation of indefinite article “a”
@Hairy Scot - Menzies - I'm of the old school here, and pron...
on: who vs. whom
@Hairy Scot - "It is a source of puzzlement to me that so ma...
on: Pled versus pleaded
@Skeeter Lewis - I totally agree with you as far as England ...
on: who vs. whom
@Hairy Scot - to take your last point first. When have I ev...
on: Resume, resumé, or résumé?
@Twain's Tapeworms. 1. We presumably capitalise CV because ...
on: who vs. whom
Sorry, silly misuse of copy and paste in that last one - I m...
on: who vs. whom
@Robbert Forbes MacGregor - yes, that's the rule that's ofte...
on: “Much More Ready”
@porsche - speaking for myself, because I'm technologically ...
on: “Much More Ready”
@D.A.W I wasn't trying to take the glory away from the US, b...
on: Pronunciation of indefinite article “a”
What about the long 'o' in the first syllable of Kosovo, whi...
on: “Much More Ready”
@D.A.W. - The word aerodrome is not used so much nowadays i...
on: “Much More Ready”
@DAW - as a fan of logic, you will have no doubt noticed a s...
on: “Much More Ready”
"The principal thinks Sally is more competent than any other...
on: Resume, resumé, or résumé?
While American dictionaries mainly list résumé as the main s...
on: who vs. whom
@Jiva - the fact that "whom" is correct in formal language d...
on: Steak - correct pronunciation
I'm not sure you can make a general rule for steak, break et...
on: “I’m just saying”
@Brus - Yes, that is one definition of judgemental, but I th...
on: “I’m just saying”
@Brus - on my keyboard (US) - apostrophe and then the lette...
on: Hey
Interesting stuff Dave, which made me decide to check with E...
on: It is you who are/is ...
@Brus - I know it's perfectly correct, but "It is I who am w...
on: It is you who are/is ...
@Brus - It's a bit late in the day, but I'm with donnahansen...
on: “I’m just saying”
@jf - Don't most of us have times when we are not really su...
on: “It is what it is”
@providencejim - Hi. In the news today: Roberto Mancini s...
on: “It is what it is”
@providencejim - Sorry, I hadn't noticed you'd already place...
on: Pronunciation of indefinite article “a”
@Ingebiorg Nordén - And the interesting thing with your exam...
on: “It is what it is”
@hot diggedy dayum - this sort of comment would be more at h...
on: and so...
@Hal121205 - If you're so concerned about extraneous languag...
on: who vs. whom
Yes, we'd normally use whom after a preposition, but a lot o...
on: He and I, me and him
Hi Jaxagirl - Just to defend the Queen, not that I'm a great...
on: He and I, me and him
@Jaxagirl - Thanks for adding a word to my vocabulary. I tak...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
@Skeeter Lewis - and to complete the trilogy - object form -...
on: my being vs me being
"She doesn't like me smoking in the house" "She doesn't lik...
on: tailorable
Don't we already frequently use 'tailor-made' for plenty of ...
on: Where used you to live?
@SpeakEnglandveryDelicious - in TEFL we teach the following:...
on: Pronunciation of indefinite article “a”
In my experience (British English), it's usually pronounced ...
on: Rules for -ise and -ize
@AnWulf - I take your point about the spelling system, and a...
on: Where used you to live?
@Percy - re: "do I ought". I think we only have a choice bet...
on: Everybody vs. Everyone
@Johnson G - whichever takes your fancy; there is no differe...
on: watch much stuff?
@Hacovo - Are you sure people are saying "I don't watch much...
on: Punctuations for a series of sentences
This sentence is often given as an example of when it's acce...
on: Where used you to live?
In Michael Swan's Practical English Usage (Oxford 1995), whi...
on: watch much stuff?
"Stuff" is neither a plural noun, like "things", nor a colle...
on: replaced by or replaced with
@porsche - and rather a good thought, I think. And there mig...
on: replaced by or replaced with
@Thomas Smith - I have some sympathy for your argument, and ...
on: “I’ve got” vs. “I have”
@Skeeter Lewis - Here's a thought: use "I've got" etc when y...
on: Medicine or Medication?
@Hairy Scot - I think this may be an example of what you wer...
on: “I’ve got” vs. “I have”
@Thomas Smith - I teach foreign students and have never come...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
Mark Liberman, of the University of Pennsylvania, has a post...
on: replaced by or replaced with
Strangely, dictionaries don't seem to be a lot of help here....
on: Someone else’s
@Hmmmm - redundancy has nothing to do with grammar; it's abo...
on: Everybody vs. Everyone
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: everybody = everyone ...
on: cannot vs. can not
Sorry again. That should have course read "which is better i...
on: cannot vs. can not
Sorry, that's not distancing, but a polite form....
on: cannot vs. can not
"Both the one-word form cannot and the two-word form can not...
on: “If I was” vs. “If I were”
@Skeeter Lewis - You might well prefer "were", and that's fi...
on: Verb-tense agreement for a quote that is still true
@Kamran - my version would go something like: Sara: Hello ...
on: “If I was” vs. “If I were”
And another article, by Professor of linguistics, Geoffrey P...
on: “If I was” vs. “If I were”
If anyone is still following this, there's an interesting bl...
on: Verb-tense agreement for a quote that is still true
@Skeeter Lewis - Hi. Although Sequence of tenses may be the...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
@cheyenne - that doesn't sound too surprising as, according ...
on: Verb-tense agreement for a quote that is still true
@porsche - First of all, all the best in your difficult situ...
on: Verb-tense agreement for a quote that is still true
@Skeeter Lewis - sorry, that sounded a bit more hectoring th...
on: Verb-tense agreement for a quote that is still true
@Skeeter Lewis - Check before you click, and we might occasi...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
I just came across this sentence - "[they're] just a couple...
on: Verb-tense agreement for a quote that is still true
If the statement still holds true you have a choice: you can...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
Barrie England has an interesting article on the subject at ...
on: “who she was” vs. “what she was”
Incidentally, my search brought up another interesting use -...
on: Rules for -ise and -ize
@AnWulf - because it's part of my identity and part of the l...
on: Medicine or Medication?
@chrisbolton20 - I think you have a point about the liquid v...
on: Medicine or Medication?
@Skeeter Lewis - My (British) dictionary defines medication ...
on: “who she was” vs. “what she was”
I think your professor has a bit of a problem seeing the woo...
on: Loose = Lose?
@crumble - I was going to to take you to task and suggest th...
on: I’ve no idea
@Skeeter Lewis - interesting point about stress, but I can't...
on: “make a decision” or “take a decision”
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, both ...
on: wish it would...
As a linking verb, the verb to be works differently to other...
on: American versus British question
@Hairy Scot - I'm so glad to hear it. Silly me for being a b...
on: Rules for -ise and -ize
@Skeeter Lewis - No, sorry but I like my -ise verbs, as evid...
on: Pronouncing “gala”
@Skeeter Lewis - I'd love to take the glory, but it was the ...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
@brandieliz44777 - you're absolutely right, when we are talk...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
Sorry - prepositional verb -"talk about" - not phrasal verb...
on: Pronouncing “gala”
@Perfect Pedant - a bit late, but as somebody with Douglas c...
on: mines
@Bengo - sorry to have prejudged you, and by your example, I...
on: American versus British question
@Hairy Scot - joking aside, although I "-ise" every verb I p...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
@porsche - you are quite right, I meant "to". I take your po...
on: “Bring” vs. “Take” differences in UK and American English
@bloops - nice variation on the song, and you're right about...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
@Frogwhisperer - 'He gave it to Michelle and me' - Michelle ...
on: Titled vs. Entitled
Checking with Ngram, the results for British books is not ve...
on: Correct preposition following different?
I thought for one shocking moment that Perfect Pedant had tu...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
Drat that extra that!...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
@jack et. al.- not to mention the fact that even in Latin, v...
on: “He gave it to Michelle and I”
Perhaps if people weren't continually being 'corrected' for ...
on: Latest vs. Newest
@Cheryl in France - I wonder what linguists you're talking a...
on: Titled vs. Entitled
@chancery.co - Nobody can argue with that, but that wasn't t...
on: LEGOs — Is the Plural form of LEGO incorrect?
Although for me Lego is uncountable, I fully accept JMick's ...
December 24, 2012, 7:54am • 1 vote
on: Correct preposition following different? Redux
@Skeeter Lewis - well here's one educated Brit that doesn't...