Hello, how can I call in English a thing which e.g. "cannot be closed"? Uncloseable or unclosable? Are they any ... English is not my mother tongue, but I want to harm it as little as possible. thanks in advance, MR Both US and UK

i've got to do something or i've got a sore throat... these are examples of bad grammar slipping into american slang. Sorry, Anon, but the expression "have got to do something" (meaning "must do something") is quite

Well, I can finally put this one to bed: In The Grammar Bible, which I love as a reference, it states that "the comma and the period go inside the closing quotation marks at all times. There are no exceptions to this rule" (Strumpf and

While and whilst are conjunctions whose primary meaning is "during the time that". An example is: The days were hot while we were on vacation. I read a magazine whilst I was waiting. While and whilst can nowadays legitimately be

I agree with the above response, as well as others. WHILE is used for referencing a "moment" (He was patient WHILE he waited), kind of like a pivot, but nowadays is often used to also reference "time to a moment" (You should

OK, Abraxas, let me say this about that: Frankly, I find the Dict.ref examples of 'usage' a little stilted at best. 'Use' would be better in both cases: the use of a technical term; an instrument that measures water use . This in spite of the

I always thought those words could be used synonymously as nouns (when 'usage' doesn't refer to a habit). From Dictionary.reference.com: Usage: The act, manner, or amount of using; use:  the usage of a technical term; an instrument

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: Use first, first of all, or firstly to introduce the first item in a list of two or more points, instructions etc • First, make sure the screws are securely fixed in position. Then attach

here in Europe we still say "may" when asking for permission, and correct our children when they use "can/could" as a substitute That's interesting, because the British writer on linguistics, F. R. Palmer, observed as early

You are wrong. The word is, and should be, "clear". That's not the error in the sentence. Sheesh! If you don't want folk to misunderstand you then perhaps you should make it clear what you're on about. ... to have a go at