By Idioms, Numbers

Yes, even though a year is longer than a season, 'summer' seems more durational than '1985. Also, small numbers may result because what you googled is not the expected. 'On vacation and..' gives 246,000, while 'in vacation and' gives 5000 hits. What we need to do is analyze these hits before...

Hello Mr M Thank you for your kind comment as usual. 'I was born during the summer of 1985' does not sound off. Why, do you suppose? I have no clue about this. Is it because a summer is a lengthy period compared with a day? As to this, I googled as I do usually. 'I was born during the summer...

Many Singaporeans do speak very good English, but the reason many western native English speakers don't consider that Singaporeans in general speak 'native English' is because of the predominance of the Singlish dialect. Singlish in it's most extreme forms lacks inflection for tense and plural...

Dear teachers, Would you please tell me if my choices are right ? Choice of verb + future tense: 1) A - I’ve got to phone a Paris number. Do you know the code ? B- No, I’LL LOOK IT UP in the directory for you. 2) A- What are you doing over the Easter holidays? B- Absolutely nothing. We a)...

Hi there ! I'm looking for English teachers and people who know this language good. I'm not a native english speaker and often need help with English stuff such as the use of idioms,phrasals, fixed phrases etc. Therefore I look for people who are often online on ICQ! Please write to me (but...

Hello Komountain and Paco I'm more than happy to continue this discussion! I too want to clear up the doubts. So please don't be concerned - it's no trouble at all. I hope you don't mind if I answer both your posts at once. Fowler's article in 'Modern Usage' on the gerund gives this example,...

The idiom is "from person to person", Paco! To make the example worse: The butterfly seemed even more beautiful when looking through the microscope. This is shading into the problem of multiply ambiguous structures such as: We saw a man on a hill with a telescope. (Where were we? Where...

Oops! Hi. You did a good job of impersonating an inquisitive ESL student. Languages (not just English), like the cultures they are an expression of, often offer no rationale for how they operate-- they just 'are'; so the mere history of the language is a valid explanation if there's nothing...

Hi Cindy, 'Dated' meaning 'outmoded' is certainly not incorrect, but probably much the more common usage, outside of the set phrase 'this letter, dated 2 January'. While Oxford calls it colloquial, Webster's makes no such distinction. As to its history, I can only say that use is not mis-use...

"a / an" does seem a bit strange with 90,000, doesn't it? There is no such thing as "a 90,000" or "a gangsters", of course! What you have come across is an idiom usually used with large numbers. The words "an estimated" are frequently used before a very large number or percentage to show that...