http://www.englishforums.com/English/UkCultureLanguageEnglish/Forum7074.htmThe use and abuse of the English language, as used in the UK, including serious and humorous examples, likes and dislikes, and the evolution of English.enXMOD (Build: 3607.32596)http://www.englishforums.com/English/DownloadableDictionaryWanted/wbdbb/post.htmMon, 16 Feb 2009 20:32:30 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:673966Usenet5http://www.englishforums.com/English/DownloadableDictionaryWanted/wbdbb/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-673966.xmlHi there Can anyone point me to a site where I can download an English dictionary in a format I can load into a database? I'm hoping to download in CSV format or similar, with a list of English words and their word types, eg noun, verb etc Thanks in advance Jimhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/WhatKindsOfCats/wgmrn/post.htmTue, 21 Apr 2009 15:58:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:701127Usenet9http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhatKindsOfCats/wgmrn/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-701127.xmlI am having an argument with the RFC-Editor. My co-author had written: but some of them may be required in certain types of article. and she changed it into but some of them may be required in certain types of articles. Q. Several times lately I've written or revised copy to change the word in the prepositional phrase following "kinds of" or "types of" to the singular from the plural"from "what kinds of cats"" "three types of errors" to "what kinds of cat," "three types of error." And several times a client has treated the resulting phrase like an error. I haven?t found the answer to this usage question in CMOS. What do you think? A. Your client is right. According...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HolyCows/kqndd/post.htmSat, 26 Sep 2009 12:12:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:917629Usenet5http://www.englishforums.com/English/HolyCows/kqndd/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-917629.xmlThe Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor (author of =91The Great Indian Novel=92) was in the eye of a storm for answering a question on twitter which went something like this: =93Now that the Govt. of India is enforcing strict austerity measures, when you fly to your home state the next time, will you be flying cattle class?=94 The poser of the query was referring to an appeal that all ministers should fly economy class. Tharoor=92s reply: =93Absolutely. Expressing solidarity with the holy cows, I too shall fly cattle class.=94 The powers that be in his party interpreted the usage =91holy cows=92 as a veiled reference to Sonia Gandhi and her son. Tharoor insisted that =91holy cows=92 were merely ideas which were...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HillOfBeans/klbjj/post.htmSun, 06 Sep 2009 16:41:47 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:889704Usenet0http://www.englishforums.com/English/HillOfBeans/klbjj/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-889704.xmlHi all I recently came across the following reply in an (American) play: 'Beaty don't know nothing! Hills of beans have flags in them announcing what Beaty knows!' Beaty being a particularly stupid character in the play. I know that "hill of beans" means something like "nothing at all" or "worthless", but I was wondering about the "flags" on them - do they make the insult worse in any way? Or am I completely mistaken about the meaning of this idiom? Grateful for any hints. Cordially Joachimhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/WoodThing/jpzdd/post.htmSun, 19 Jul 2009 18:05:15 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:826883Usenet4http://www.englishforums.com/English/WoodThing/jpzdd/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-826883.xmlDoes anybody know the meaning of 'wood-thing' in the poem Love Song by Dorothy Parker? ... My love, he's mad, and my love, he's fleet, And a wild young wood-thing bore him! ... http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1554.html Helmuthttp://www.englishforums.com/English/TheRainStopped/wpbmj/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 07:49:37 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:742365Usenet1http://www.englishforums.com/English/TheRainStopped/wpbmj/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-742365.xml"By the time I'm going home, the rain shall/will have stopped." Are both shall/will allowed in current-day BrE, in this context, in all registers? Thanks.http://www.englishforums.com/English/CriticalButStable/wglmz/post.htmThu, 16 Apr 2009 17:53:47 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:701034Usenet20http://www.englishforums.com/English/CriticalButStable/wglmz/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-701034.xmlJust to keep this group alive... Yet again I hear on the wireless that a victim of violence is - and has been for several days - in a 'critical but stable condition'. To my ear, these are almost antonyms, a view borne out I think by dictionaries. How do you understand it? Noelhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/TheDefindedArticleComputerRelated-ProperNames/wgljx/post.htmFri, 27 Feb 2009 14:29:08 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:700992Usenet3http://www.englishforums.com/English/TheDefindedArticleComputerRelated-ProperNames/wgljx/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-700992.xmlHello, I'm not an Englishman, it might be the reason why some affairs in English are problematic for me. Let's take the defined article - "the". Where to use it and where not? I don't mean the basic usage, but sometimes I'm really confused. For example, if there are some proper names. Of course, there are some rules in this case, too (I don't usually remember all of them, but I check in Google if I can), however, still there are some cases where I can't find the answer. The problem is that I write a lot of technical IT-related texts at work and, probably, I make many linguistic mistakes. So below, you can find a few examples of problematic situations. Please, give me correct answers! 1. Let's imagine...http://www.englishforums.com/English/SomeWordUsage/hqknk/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666376Usenet14http://www.englishforums.com/English/SomeWordUsage/hqknk/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666376.xmlI have an instance where someone is using "English" (probably not AmerEnglish) words when writing and I wondered if these can give a reasonable clue as to what part of the world this individual comes from originally: afore for before bye for by don't fret for don't worry I'd have to do some difficult research to find more examples.http://www.englishforums.com/English/ScreenplayEtc/hqlcq/post.htmWed, 22 Apr 2009 01:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666484Usenet2http://www.englishforums.com/English/ScreenplayEtc/hqlcq/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666484.xmlHi ! I'm Barbara from Rome. At present days, I'm attending high school and I'm deeply involved in learning English, although (as you, probably, have just observed) I'm still a beginner. I download a lot of lyrics from the Internet to read them while listening songs (in English, of course) to get some skill in discerning words. I would love do the same with movies; I have been searching for days screenplay and dialogs of movies but no result was found because keywords as "screenplay" and "dialogs" rise up advertising, criticism, etc. in thousands. Please, can you give any hints about finding them ?? Thanks for reading me !! Best regards. Barbarahttp://www.englishforums.com/English/EnglishQuestionnaire/hqlrw/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666442Usenet0http://www.englishforums.com/English/EnglishQuestionnaire/hqlrw/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666442.xmlDear People (especially those in the US), I am a PhD student in economics and I am going to hold a web questionnaire that will take place in the US. The numebr of respondents will be about 1500. I have prepared the web questionnaire myself. During the preparation I checked books on questionnaire design and other questionnaires that were similar in nature. I did checks and I discussed it with my supervisor. But I am not that all confident if I could design the questionnaire well. In particular, I do not know if the questions are clearly understandable. I am not a native English speaker after all Therefore, I need some people to express their opinon on the questionnaire. Escpecially I want to know if the questionniare is understandable to...http://www.englishforums.com/English/OrdinarilyTemporarilyMomentarily/hqkjh/post.htmSun, 22 Mar 2009 02:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666305Usenet10http://www.englishforums.com/English/OrdinarilyTemporarilyMomentarily/hqkjh/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666305.xmlI am somewhat confused about the proper British pronunciation of words like "ordinarily", "temporarily", and "momentarily". As I understand it, in British pronunciation the adjectives "ordinary", "temporary", and "momentary" all have a silent "a", whereas Americans not only pronounce the "a", but have a secondary stress on that letter. But what happens when you turn the adjectives into adverbs? According to my dictionary, the proper British pronunciation is still to have a silent "a" in "ordinarily", "temporarily", and "momentarily" and pronounce them all with the stress on the first syllable. However, my feeling is...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HelpAnnouncement/hqkjb/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666299Usenet0http://www.englishforums.com/English/HelpAnnouncement/hqkjb/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666299.xmlHi everybody! I'm italian and I study english Is possible to find any files audio or texts regarding train's announcement or Airplane's announcements?(cabin crew,safety demo) Thanks in advance! Bye, simonahttp://www.englishforums.com/English/FragrantFiona/hqkwl/post.htmThu, 22 Jan 2009 02:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666292Usenet1http://www.englishforums.com/English/FragrantFiona/hqkwl/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666292.xmlA reader of the community newsletter I edit has objected violently to a regular (satirical) columnist's use of this denomination for one of our councillors. Does anyone know when, why and in what context it was first used publicly? None of the Google quotes I could find looked at all original. Noelhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/WhenAndWhyRafe/hqkrn/post.htmWed, 22 Apr 2009 01:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666158Usenet4http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhenAndWhyRafe/hqkrn/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666158.xmlThe broadcast media seem to have decided that "Ralph" should be pronounced "rafe". I've known of, for example, Ralph Richardson and Ralph Vaughan Williams for most of my life, but suddenly and fairly recently they've become "rafes". Any justification for this? Regards, BShttp://www.englishforums.com/English/AndHappenedPersuade/hqjnx/post.htmSun, 22 Feb 2009 02:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:666091Usenet2http://www.englishforums.com/English/AndHappenedPersuade/hqjnx/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-666091.xml"Convince" seems to have replaced "persuade" almost completely in UK broadcasting. It seems totally wrong to me to say, for example, "I convinced him to come with us to the cinema"http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDemocraticEnglishClassroom/hqjzl/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665952Usenet14http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDemocraticEnglishClassroom/hqjzl/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665952.xmlHow democratic is your ESL classroom? Who gets to speak in class? Whose ideas count? Who chooses the assignments? How do students receive feedback? Do students have a chance to conference with their instructors? Can YouTube be a valuable source for homework assignment? Do you want your students to become self-directed - or autotelic - in their studies? Here=92s a quick checklist for English teachers that I created for a recent CATESOL (California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) workshop called =93Techniques for a More Democratic Classroom=94. My core assumption remains that giving students more opportunities to literally speak, write, and share their insights leads to a more engaging, dynamic, and valuable classroom...http://www.englishforums.com/English/AlmondEyed/hqjcd/post.htmSun, 22 Mar 2009 02:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665893Usenet14http://www.englishforums.com/English/AlmondEyed/hqjcd/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665893.xmlDoes anyone know the English word meaning 'almond-eyed'. Many thanks Petehttp://www.englishforums.com/English/CervantesWroteShakespearesPlays-Rehash/hqwcj/post.htmThu, 22 Jan 2009 02:19:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665610Usenet12http://www.englishforums.com/English/CervantesWroteShakespearesPlays-Rehash/hqwcj/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665610.xml"... o somos o no somos" It was haunting me since I had recently re-read it, to the point that has forced me to write a new post in this blog: "... porque o somos o no somos" Does it sound familiar? Probably not if you don't speak Spanish or any other Latin-based language. The translation is "to be or not to be" And guess who, of all Spanish writers, could have written such an original sentence, that is universally attributed to Shakespeare? Some time ago I wrote a post on the same subject, "Cervantes y Shakespeare eran la misma persona", where I exposed some of the similarities between the two authors, that inexplicably seemed to have gone largely unnoticed. Salvador de Madariaga, the Spanish...http://www.englishforums.com/English/BigNumbers/hqwnl/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665799Usenet11http://www.englishforums.com/English/BigNumbers/hqwnl/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665799.xmlThe news has been full of large numbers in the last few days. I was taught as a child (1950s) that 'billion' was a million millions, and 'trillion' was a million billions. My OED (2nd ed., 1989) gives Billion 1. orig. and still commonly in Great Britain: A million millions (=U.S. trillion) 2. In U.S., and increasingly in Britain: A thousand millionsMilliard A thousand millions Trillion The third power of a million; a million billions, i.e. millions of millions. Also, orig. in France and local U.S., a thousand ‘billions’, or 10^12 (i.e. the traditional English billion): this sense is now standard in the U.S. and is increasingly common in British usage. I'm still not sure what a trillion is nowadays and that definition...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowPronounceFractionsBritishEnglish/hqwhh/post.htmSun, 22 Feb 2009 02:19:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665693Usenet18http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowPronounceFractionsBritishEnglish/hqwhh/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665693.xmlHello, I am looking for the right pronunciation of fractions in British English. Every style guide I find is very clear about thirds, quarters and fifths, but then they stop. How do you pronounce fractions like "4000 / 563" in English? Is it "Four thousand five hundred sixty thirds"? How do you differentiate that from "4500 / 63" which would be pronounced the very same way? I am familiar with "4000 over 563" in American English. Is this correct in British English, too? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards, P. Papaspyrouhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/IContactNativeEnglishSpeakers/hqhxn/post.htmWed, 22 Apr 2009 01:19:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665529Usenet2http://www.englishforums.com/English/IContactNativeEnglishSpeakers/hqhxn/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665529.xmlHello All. I would like to meet nice native English speakers. Who have enough leisure time to make an email exchange with me. We can discussion about culture, language. In next year I would like to pass my FCE exam. So I have to make a lot of language exercises as for to pass it. My email is: (Email Removed) Thank you very much.http://www.englishforums.com/English/Learnglish/hqwbv/post.htmThu, 22 Jan 2009 02:19:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665588Usenet3http://www.englishforums.com/English/Learnglish/hqwbv/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665588.xmlThere's a Web page headed "Learnglish" that has a huge number of alt.usage.english postings that are offered without, so far as I've found, giving any credit to alt.usage.english. The author of each posting is shown, but the names have been stripped from the intermediate attributions. They try to give the impression that the discussions they've appropriated have taken place in forums at their Web site. One "forum" consists of a very long 2003 thread about the pronunciations (A:), (A.), and (O:). (The second posting in the list has Peter Moylan saying "Heads down, everyone; here comes another CINC thread".) I don't think the plagiarizers have done anything illegal, since alt.usage.english...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ILookAdviceAboutStudyEnglish-Oneself/hqhnr/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665499Usenet1http://www.englishforums.com/English/ILookAdviceAboutStudyEnglish-Oneself/hqhnr/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665499.xmlHello All. I would like to ask about how to study English by oneself? I was on course in language school. It was terrible time form me. I achieve only FCE course from Longman book - "Fast track to FCE". Now I am studying English at home and repetition all lessons from last school year course. I notice that when I study by oneself I make a bigger progress in English than my classroom school. Every day I am also studying English grammar form Michael Swan - "Practical English Usage". It is good book, I think. My question is what should I do to still improve my English? Maybe some solutions are: 1.make a conversation by Skype with native speaker, 2.read a lot of (but sometimes I couldn't translate and understand whatI...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WouldHave/hqhpd/post.htmFri, 22 May 2009 01:19:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:665536Usenet9http://www.englishforums.com/English/WouldHave/hqhpd/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments7074-665536.xmlI'm starting to notice, more and more, a strange and - to my ear - clumsy construction for the subjunctive. The latest instance, on Radio 4 just now, was: "If these guys would have done..." Whereas what I would have expected is "If these guys had done..." The latter, of course, can also be inverted to "Had these guys done...", whereas I cannot see any way of doing this with the former and retaining any hint of the meaning. Have other people noticed this ages ago, and I've just been slow about it? Where did it come from? It reminds me of the complex grammatical inventions by Douglas Adams in "Restaurant at the End of the Universe", or Seller & Yeatman's "Had I not would have...