Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Username

amazed

Member Since

April 26, 2007

Total number of comments

26

Total number of votes received

82

Bio

Latest Comments

the spinning around machine

  • July 26, 2007, 11:36am

How about simply hyphenating the compound modifier:
"the spinning-around machine"?
It's fairly basic grammar and allows you to retain the flavor of the words you want to use while clearing up any confusion about meaning.

Pronunciation: aunt

  • June 22, 2007, 12:57pm

Okay, now I'm totally baffled. I've been amused until now with how very distressed and even holier-than-thou people can be about mere regionalistic pronunciations! But this new "Merry Mary Married Hairy Harry" things has me scratching my head ~ how can all of these POSSIBLY be pronounced the exact same way???

How about dailish?

Over exaggeration

  • May 3, 2007, 2:55pm

of course you can underexaggerate--I imagine it happening the morning after a less-then-enthralling sexual experience while a young lady is regaling her best friend with the tale of her unimpressive companion! ;->

A couple...

  • May 2, 2007, 2:51pm

Well then, I stand corrected!
and remain... amazed.

all _____ sudden

  • April 26, 2007, 2:01pm

Here's another one that drive me nuts: "a couple... " in lieu of "a couple of...". "A couple drinks", or whatever. While I find the question of "all of a sudden" vs "all of the" merely interesting, with this one I am inclined to assume laziness. Any thoughts?

Questions

A couple... April 26, 2007