Hi, yes, I'd say that "rule" applies to most nouns. It's a general one. Poor countries... (When talking about poor countries in general) The poor countries... (When referring to some specific poor countries, or when emphazising

Yeah, accents in songs are... different or fake. Most singers sound pretty much like Americans with a non-rhotic accent, no matter where they are from.

Except for = exception. "Except for John, they would all have died" = They would all have died, but not John. He would have been the exception. Well, yes, that's how I would interpret it. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but

Hmm, I'm not a native speaker, but I wouldn't use "except" that way. Used that way, "except" introduces and exception, I think. The store is open every day except (on) Sunday. In your sentence, "your help"

That's what some usage guide and grammar book might say, but such a rule doesn't seem to reflect contemporary usage very well.

I just want to weigh in on this discussion and say that "Jew" is also a verb Hmm, it's not in Merriam Webster. But it's on thefreedictionary.com, which means it should be in The American Heritage Dictionary or something. So I

Practice makes perfect but nobody is perfect, SO WHY PRACTICE??? To become nobody, apparently, since he's so perfect.

No, I guess it's you. You have been posting pretty regularly, haven't you? And you have given several answers, and you sometimes cite advice you have seen in grammar books or other guides... right? In my opinion, your posts seem very

This is the same old problem: infinitive or gerund? It's not easy to find a rule of thumb, you just have to follow... your instinct. But I just wrote "It's not easy to find..." and not "It's not easy finding...". My

You can choose the one you hear the most or the one you like the most. In my opinion, it's not worth bothering with such a distinction, because it would be a useless effort, unless you really wanted to have a perfect accent where such a