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
Does anyone know the correct way to use “comprise”? I’ve often seen it used like this:
The conference comprised of a number of lectures...
I don’t think it would be right to say “the conference comprised a number of lectures” but I’m really not sure about using “of” with “comprise”.
Are the following sentences proper and correct?
“The weather is getting worst.” “The ten best clients and the ten worst clients.”
My wife insists that it should be worse and not worst.
Thanks.
I came across a question as I was writing some ELT material. What are the pragmatic implications when choosing between the verbs “to eat” or “to have” (breakfast)?
I might be off base here, but it seems to me that when choosing 1. “to eat breakfast” the real question is whether or not one had breakfast. While 2. “to have breakfast” seems to evoke the act and time of having breakfast itself and everything that goes with it.
For instance:
1. Did you eat breakfast today? 2. I always have breakfast before lunch.
What do you all think?
As a non-native teacher of English as a Foreign Language, I have always frowned on my students’ use of the sentence “I have a doubt”.
Judging it a typical case of language transfer, I promptly tell them that they should instead say that they “have a question”.
After coming across the sentence “if students have doubt” in a teacher’s guide, I don’t feel so self-assured as to jump on my students’ phrase anymore.
Any comment on this usage will be greatly appreciated.
Eduardo
Overheard (frequently) in India:
“When will we be there?” “We will reach in a few hours.”
Eh? In America, the verb “to reach” always takes an object. “We will reach our destination in a few hours”. Is this usage limited to the subcontinent, or is it used in the UK as well?
I’m puzzled recently by the words ‘shade’ and ‘shadow’. I know the word ‘shade’ can mean the darkness created by leaves. But besides this what other differences between the two words. Waiting for your help, thanks a lot.
Heyah everybody there! Does a phrase like ‘according to me,...’ really exist in English? Technically speaking, it’s seems possible to have such phrase but as a university student I was told that nobody speaks like that. Also, none of my English dictionaries gives any examples of that kind. Well, we do often hear the instances of ‘according to her/him/reports/Peter/the minister’ ...etc. but not ‘according to me’? Is that so or am I wrong?
I thought I’ve always used the expression “Murphy’s Law” correctly, but now a native English speaker cast doubt on my usage. This happens a lot with me. I thought I had been using certain terms correctly for years, and one day, someone tells me that it’s wrong. I correct it, then years later, someone else corrects me again.
The context I used “Murphy’s Law” was this:
In buying more storage space for a computer server, I said the Murphy’s Law is this: Whatever the amount of space you provide, that’s how much people end up using it, because most people are too lazy to properly back up files and delete them off the server. So, the bigger is not always the better. If you provide too much space, you’ll end up with unmanageable amount of data to back up properly.
There are certain phenomena in life where things naturally incline towards the worst case scenario. File storage is one such case. If no one puts pressures on people to back up and delete, the servers usually get full no matter how big it is. Is this a wrong use of “Murphy’s Law”?
I sometimes hear about American travelers having trouble ordering water abroad.
Some visiting Europe complain that they’ll get sparkling water or mineral water (!) for their order of... water. These people would then try ordering water “no gas” BUT would get a bottle of non-carbonated water (!?).
I am kind of at loss as to what words I should use when ordering water in the US. I take it that “sparkling” is the word of choice when ordering carbonated water. Are the words “club soda” and “soda water” just as popular?
I have been told that “bottled water” is the expression used to order non-carbonated water. But I am not sure. Do you use “still water” for non-carbonated? Also I don’t get why the people mentioned above 1. referred to carbonated water as mineral (!) and 2. complained that they got “non-carbonated water” for their order of “water ‘no gas’ “.
I’ve tried looking it up only to make matters worse. I know there are a dozen questions all bunched into one message, but could anyone help me set the record straight on this one? I appreciate it.
I read this in an article,
“Tape all your screws to your air conditioner, so you’ll have them ready come next season.”
How do you suppose that usage of the word “come” came about? I’ve heard it, but I don’t hear it often.
