Discussion Forum
This is a forum to discuss the gray areas of the English language for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries or other reference books.
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Latest Posts : Usage
Hi all!
It’s a wonderful blog. Congratulations!
I’m in this predicament:
What is the rule for using north/south/east/west and northern/southern/eastern/western with geographical names?
For example, why is it called “Eastern Europe” instead of “East Europe” and “North America” instead of “Northern America”. In this regard, which collocation is more acceptible - “Southern France” or “South France”. Why? What’s the rule?
Thanks!
It might seem a bit nit-picky but I was wondering about how people say... oh this is hard to word for me. Take for instance, a whiny kid who wants to go the park. His mom takes him to the side and says, “Timmy(or something like that), everyone doesn’t want to go to the park.”
That’s a really bad example... But I’m wondering if that’s wrong, or if it’s any better at all to say, “Not everyone wants to go to the park.”
It’s just that when someone uses Everyone + Negative verb it seems like “Nobody” instead of “Only a certain few”--I think they mean. Of course if no one wanted to go they would just say, “Nobody wants to go”, not “Everyone does not want to go”... it’s weird the second way.
It grates my nerves to hear someone say “everyone can’t do it...” instead of “Not everyone can do it”. Maybe they don’t want to have a negative outlook. gyahhh.
Am I making sense? (no).
Can one really work “under a time-constraint”? This seems odd to me. Since the person cannot literally be under this constraint. Would it make more sense to state, “...in the context of a time-constraint”? Or is is better to state in some other way?
I work for a liquor distributor and have a recurring problem with vodka & tomato juice. My coworkers and I cannot agree on the correct plural form of Bloody Mary. Help!
New to this blog, I read back a few days and discovered the entry on you all, in which some commentators maintained that you by itself does satisfactory service as a plural. But consider the following: Person walks into a bar, says “hi, y’all” to everyone there. This utterance would be recognized as perfectly grammatical and ordinary by any native speaker of red-state English. Is there any variety of English where “hi, you” could be taken as a greeting to everyone?
I’m damn confused about this... Can anybody tell me which is the right way to say?
“I am sorry to hear that you have trouble with login into our website.”
or
” I am sorry that you have trouble with log in to our website.”
I feel both are wrong. If so, what is the right way to say this?
I recently came across the following sentence in an American online newspaper:
“He has left a message for his children’s baby sitter, a high school freshman who lives next door, to relieve the nanny, who leaves at 6.”
Which left me wondering as to the disctinction between a baby sitter and a nanny.
Any comment is greatly appreciated.
Tks y’all!
Why do most Americans say “you all” instead of just the second person plural “you”? When and where did this originate. I am expecting answers from you all.
Is this a real word? Can’t find it in dictionaries, but commonly used as found by web search.
Recently a guy introduced his significant other (a female who was present) to me by saying “this is my partner”, and it took me some time (and after seeing them together) to figure out that she was a significant other instead of any other forms of “partner” - a business partner, a tennis partner, etc.
My understanding of the term is that “partner” is often used to refer to a homosexual partner, which is apparently not the case here; or, when the partner being mentioned is not present, I guess one could say “my partner and I went shopping”, in which case, the “partner” could be taken as either male or female.
But when the person herself is there, isn’t “partner” too general a term to use? would you have figured out right away that he meant a significant other? Or is this an accepted usage within any specific region? (this is in the U.S.)
thanks, Martine
