Forgive me jumping in. The colon has only one important function: it indicates that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration or what precedes it. What the precedes the colon must be a complete sentence. What follows it may be a

John C, may I say a deep and sincere "amen." It ought to be posted widely. I do hope many people will read it.

Speaking as a teacher, I get irritated when I see questions like this in an examination. I feel that it is a trick question. I hope it was not in an exam for those learning English as a Second language. It is grammatically correct to say

Interesting thread. But no one has stopped to define what is a New Yorker? Is it someone who lives in Chinatown? The Bronx? Manhattan? Queens? What is a Londoner? Someone who lives in North London? The East End? Chelsea? Lambeth? Hampstead?

You cannot say "a large numbers" This is bad English. If you use "a" you are refering to the singular. You must say, "a large number." You can say, "large numbers of..." "Large numbers of tourists came to China in 2002." Or you can say,

I am always trying to encourage my students to think. For example, if I ask the question, "What do you think of America?" I get several types of response. So I ask my students, "What is America?" Some say, "It is a beautiful country, with

Recently there has been a long thread about British and American accents. But nobody has stopped to ask what is a British or an American accent. Do you mean an accent from London? If so from North London or the East end of London? From

If there are two people at a meeting who are called Jones, you could say, "There were two Joneses at the meeting. However, although the general rule is to add es to the name it becomes somewhat cumbersome with some names. For example, it looks

Sadly, 'as of' is quite often found in American writing. It is a silly expression, stiff and pompous. The 'of' is redundant. Use 'at.' (The balance at October 14, 2003 was $25.) Advice to all learners of English: Never use it in a sentence.

Have you heard about the magician who waved his magic wand at a motor car and it turned into a side street?