Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

Percy

Member Since

June 15, 2012

Total number of comments

23

Total number of votes received

46

Bio

Modern Antiquarian

Retired lecturer and book seller

Latest Comments

Bring / take

Could this be another example of the German 'interference' in American English which also accounts for 'fill out' rather than 'fill in' and conditional 'If I would . . .' constructions? Bringen translates both ways.

Pronouncing “mandatory”

  • September 26, 2012, 10:53am

@Warsaw Will - I agree reg- u-LAT-ory probably cons from regulation. But don't you think mandate has an equal stress on each syllable rather a stress on than the first?

Pronouncing “mandatory”

  • September 25, 2012, 12:42am

Although I'm not sure how reg-u-LAY-tory came about.

Pronouncing “mandatory”

  • September 25, 2012, 12:33am

This is not pretension, it is just the reasonable, but incorrect, assumption that forms of a word are all pronounced the same. Mandate is a commoner word than mandatory, so the pronunciation of the latter is assimilated to the former.

Heaven or heaven?

  • August 30, 2012, 9:02am

In Genesis 1.1 God creates heaven, but in verse 8 he names it 'Heaven' - then it reverts to being heaven at least in the Authorized (King James) Version.

I suppose as there is only one heaven and one hell the lower case is appropriate.

Anglican

  • August 16, 2012, 12:56pm

But it is a fact that 'Anglo' is often used to mean 'British' for example in Anglo-American.

A couple of other points. England never conquered Scotland, and the American colonies fought for independence from Britain not England.

English History as an academic discipline would not (nowadays) include the other parts of the British Isles except in so much as they related to England.

'Church of England' is actually a translation of Ecclesia Anglicana - a title also used before the break with Rome. Henry VIII in doctrine remained close to traditional Catholicism and the doctrinal statements of his schismatic church (as one might call it) became more conservative as his reign progressed. The term 'Henrician Catholic' is sometimes used to describe the Church of England during his reign. Many modern Anglo-Catholics looked back to this period as a representative of their own position.

Anglican

  • July 28, 2012, 11:25pm

Perhaps in Anglo-Catholic, though that might have originally signified 'English' as opposed to 'Roman' Catholic.

But otherwise not.

changed history

  • July 25, 2012, 12:34am

Same sort of thing.

Classic refers to quality; classical to a historical period.

In the West the classical period is the era of Ancient Greece and Rome.

A classic is the one of the best of its kind, or is considered to be a model or standard.

Jane Austen's novels are literary classics, but she wasn't an ancient Greek.

You could, of course, say the nineteenth century was the classical period of the English novel, of which Austen's are classics (but not all nineteenth century novels are).

changed history

  • July 24, 2012, 1:51am

There is a difference between the historical and the historic. The former is everything that happened; the latter what is considered to be significant. The former is fixed; the latter is a matter of assessment, revision and debate.

I suggest that when it is said something has changed history what is meant is that it has changed what in history we consider to be historic.

Things that changed history may belong to the latter category.

Pronouncing “gala”

  • July 24, 2012, 12:32am

. . . as you would if you said Garla-shields (which is in Scotland not NE England).

Questions

“Thank you for reverting to us” January 2, 2015