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porsche
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October 20, 2005
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Why are some single objects plural?
- December 13, 2010, 3:35am
Gee, I would have thought it was fairly obvious. Things like scissors, pliers, etc., are plural because they are clearly pairs of objects. Scissors consist of two cutting blades held together by a pivot. Pliers consist of two plying arms joined by a pivot. Etc., etc.,...
Over exaggeration
- November 27, 2010, 9:50pm
forgive the few typos above
Over exaggeration
- November 27, 2010, 8:12pm
Adam, if you were referring to me, I don't know how you concluded that I got my definnition from The Urban Dictionary. It's been a few years, but I think I got it word for word (note the quotation marks) from Webster's, not sure what edition. It certainly wasn't from The Urban Dictionary. Oh, and to Ty Guy, et al., I don't think understate is a good substitute for underexaggereate. I would think that underexaggeration would be exaggeration that was less than the expected amount, but still exaggeration, not understatement at all. Say, someone says, "I caught a fish that was THIS big", holding his hands fourteen or fifteen inches apart when the actual fish was only twelve inches long. That would be underexaggeration. Holding his hands three feet apart would be the expected exaggeration, and just called exaggeration. Getting a friend to stand on the other side of the room to hold out one hand while he places the other hand twenty feet away to indicate the fishes length would be overexaggeration.
Complete Sentence
- November 18, 2010, 11:17pm
TheEnglishScholar, Indelicato, I must say, I really can't follow your logic. First, imperatives are definitely sentences (there are four types of sentences, declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory). Imperative sentences, by their very definition, do not have explicitly stated subjects. There's nothing about "go" that requires an object. It can simply mean "to leave". So "go" is clearly a self-contained and complete imperative sentence which most definitely conveys a complete thought or idea. What I really don't understand is why you would think it is at all relevant whether it specifies who goes or where they go or why gesturing or pointing has anything at all to do with it. Nearly every sentence in existence relies on other information or a context. That doesn't make the sentence any less of a sentence. Are you going to tell me that "I ate the whole thing." isn't a sentence because I didn't specify what thing I ate? Ridiculous! If your reasoning were correct, then any sentence that used a pronoun wouldn't be a sentence because you'd need another sentence to figure out who "he" or "she" might be. If I say "Get out of here. Go.", Those are two full sentences. If I want someone out of my presence, then if I just say "go", then "go" means "go". It doesn't matter who, where, when, or how. If I point to the door, or just give them a dirty look, or ignore them completely with my back to them, "go" still means "go" and is still a sentence.
Does “Who knows” need a question mark?
- November 15, 2010, 8:27pm
Regarding inflection, not all questions inflect upwards at the end. In "Who ate my bagel?", I would inflect downwards at the end, not upwards, but clearly it's still a question. In fact, if I followed with "You ate my bagel!", the inflection would be pretty much identical.
B4 Dickens
- November 10, 2010, 10:00pm
Gossun, regarding "Steph, are you suggesting that Shakespeare spelled his words 'however he wanted?'", Shakespeare was quite inconsistent in his spelling throughout his works, as mentioned, often within the same paragraph. Even in his last will and testament he spelled his own name differently throughout the document.
Canadian pronunciation of “out and about”
- October 31, 2010, 9:16pm
Canconned, I'm not sure just what your point is. The word pairs you gave are pronounced differently by everyone who speaks English, not just Canadian raised. One has a voiced consonant, the other, unvoiced. That is pretty much universal.
Credit card
- October 26, 2010, 3:49pm
The credit card processing machine may be called a credit card terminal, especially those little ones with telephone keypards on them, also, terminal/printer for those with paper tape print output. The old style sliding machine that takes carbon copy receipts is called a credit card imprinter, sometimes, more specifically, manual credit card imprinter. Printers are simply called credit card printers. PIN pads are called, er, PIN pads.
Accepted spellings, punctuation, and capitalization of email
- October 15, 2010, 12:27pm
And, as everyone neglected to mention, since it's in a title, the "E" would be capitalized in your example even if it weren't at the start of the sentence.
Why are some single objects plural?
"Forks" isn't incorrect at all, nor is it colloquial. I've only heard of the American version, "fork" until this post, but "forks" is just as logical. It just represents a different perspective. A bicycle fork can be viewed as a fork with two tines, one on each side of the front wheel. But, each "tine" is a fork in its own right. Each bit that attaches to the wheel has two tines that straddle the front wheel's axle, one fork on each side of the front wheel, two forks total.
Oh, and my "fairly obvious" comment wasn't directed at your original post, Ian. It was intended for the nearby posts above my last post.