"the break even point analysis is all right if you have a one product business"?. Just pay extra attention to this point a + singular noun beginning with a consonant: a car, a stare, a dog, a cat ... an + singular noun

NSOED adds for your (b) usage: "freq. foll. by ... milk from which the cream has been skimmed; skim milk". On the left-pondian side, by the way, AHD3 has an entry for "skim milk" but none for "skimmed milk", which

As for the back-formation bit, that's how I see the ... As used by "the manin the street," so to speak. I've never seen it to mean that, though of course one could use such things to try to persuade someone ... fide customer when

that's Because it's a matter of the written language, I have always assumed that the captioners are following an explicit rule. In fact, in a post to alt.english.usage a couple of years ago, I reported having read just such a rule: See

one "Ms." would It turns out that the British recognize ... for "Ms" the pronunciations /mIz/ and /m@s/, that is, "muss." Sorry for not snipping, but I thought the above was all relevant. I find your findings

My remarks about the punctuation style recommended by Oxford University Press have been based on print copies of style guides. I don't know of any modern Web source for guidance in Oxford style, but there could easily be one that I don't