http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=user%3abratannia&o=DateDescendingSearch results for 'user:bratannia'en-USXMOD (Build: 3615.39139)http://www.englishforums.com/English/But/khxn/post.htm#51424Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:07:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51424bratanniaHmm, not quite. "I got out of the bus but didn't come into the house right away" would be very awkward as "I got out of the bus except I didn't come into the house right away." Even the paperback novel version, "I got out of the bus all right. 'Cept I didn't come into the house right away," sounds like it's saying something different. There's an element of suspense there, an implication of "I did something unexpected at that point." Somehow this all relates to the reason why the "however" meaning of the word "but" splits into two logically distinct words in Russian, "a" and "no," referred to by one website as "adversative and contrastive conjunctions." There is one logical "but" for unexpected things, and another for merely...http://www.englishforums.com/English/LackDeterminationCannotDecision-Firmly/jnqk/post.htm#51420Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:49:10 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51420bratanniaFor real folk conversation on this topic, people mostly use phrases rather than individual words. He can't make up his mind (or he can never make up his mind), she doesn't know whether she's coming or going, he doesn't know how to make a decision about anything. If a one-word accusation is then added to sum up the argument, "wishy-washy" sounds like a real household word and can be used by people of any age; calling someone a "ditherer" sounds businesslike and old-fashioned and would seem hilarious coming from a child; "irresolute" sounds very academic and strongly critical (when spoken aloud); "hesitant" sounds sympathetic; and "ambivalent" sounds educated and rather detached. "Vacillating" most often refers to something that is...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhenceDrawALineInTheSand/khkq/post.htm#51414Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:04:19 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51414bratanniaHere's what the Word-detective website has to say: In his book "In Love With Norma Loquendi" (a collection of his Sunday New York Times Magazine columns, published by Random House in 1994), Mr. (William) Safire provides two possible origins for "drawing a line in the sand." The more recent possible origin for the phrase is an incident said to have taken place during the siege of the Alamo in 1836, when William Barret Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and urged those willing to stay and defend the fort to step across it. Unfortunately, this heroic story seems to have been invented by a 19th century promoter long after the fall of the Alamo. But the myth itself probably greatly popularized the phrase, so it does count as...http://www.englishforums.com/English/But/khxn/post.htm#51413Thu, 21 Oct 2004 20:50:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51413bratanniaThey both have the sense of singling out a discordant element. The "however" meaning attaches to a word that can be translated as "but" in most languages, but the "only" meaning is specifically Germanic and is a relict of Saxon in the English language. Phrases like, " I have but one life to give for my country" are deliberately archaic in English. In Dutch, the however/only dichotomy is very much alive and well in the word "maar."http://www.englishforums.com/English/OnAPlain/kzvn/post.htm#51412Thu, 21 Oct 2004 20:22:12 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51412bratanniaPaul Simon wrote an easier one a generation earlier: I knew a man, his brain was so small, He couldn't think of nothing at all. He's not the same as you and me. He doesn't dig poetry. He's so unhip that When you say Dylan, he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas, Whoever he was. The man ain't got no culture, But it's alright, ma, Everybody must get stoned. (A simple desultory philippic) Youth cultchah -- whatever generation it may be, you either rise to the challenge of understanding what it all means or you don't. One person's meaningless gibberish is 100,000,000 Nirvana fans' high profundity -- even though the same fans may chuckle about the whole thing when they're 50, and maybe even conclude that it didn't...http://www.englishforums.com/English/OnAPlain/kzvn/post.htm#51128Tue, 19 Oct 2004 22:14:59 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51128bratanniaGiven "I got so high that i scratched 'till i bled," (2nd line) I would say one possibility for "I'm on a plain" is "I'm holding steady and smooth on my heroin/coke buzz for the day and I'm not coming down for a good long while yet." Various recriminations and self-critical thoughts are possible: "I love myself, better than you" -- I realize it was greedy and self-indulgent of me just to drug myself up again; guess I love myself more than (I love) you. "You know it's wrong, so what should i do?" Yes, woman who loves me, we both know it's wrong but that hasn't stopped me, has it? So what can I do about it? I'm blackmailed by my addiction, can't stop, I try to post myself out of this system but I just get returned to my own doorstep...http://www.englishforums.com/English/MetallicaUnforgiven/2/kvrh/Post.htm#51125Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:59:15 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:51125bratanniaNo other online Merriam-Webster fans here? Dub (transitive verb) 1 a : to confer knighthood on b : to call by a distinctive title, epithet, or nickname 2 : to trim or remove the comb and wattles of 3 a : to hit (a golf ball) poorly b : to execute poorly - dub·ber noun Don't know the song, but meaning 1 would work in context, as would meaning 3, especially if "the unforgiven" were chickens. Have you ever forgiven a chicken? It would be a great act of metal band power if you could personally and permanently confer unforgivenness on someone as if you were knighting them. A touch of my sword, or guitar, and you, my friend, are be(k)nighted as one of the unforgiven. A bit like "I cast thee into Hell," which is surely the...http://www.englishforums.com/English/BadEnglishPoorEnglish/hhpb/post.htm#36911Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:58:19 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36911bratanniaWouldn't "that was written using poor English" be a misuse of a participle? The writing, per se, was not done using any kind of English. It was done using a writing implement such as a pen or a computer. On the other hand, what began as a thought and emerged on the page was an example of poor English. The poor English first becomes perceptible when we see it subsisting in the text. Therefore, we would normally say, "that was written in poor English." We conceive the construction of the English phrasing, a logical function, as being separate from the writing process. True, Miriam?http://www.englishforums.com/English/Grammar/2/hhvb/Post.htm#36909Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:42:16 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36909bratanniaOne interesting new teacher is Google. If you want to find out if a phrase is being used in the way you're using it, just type it into google in quotation marks, as in "sweets and ices." If the phrase is widely used, as this one is, then you'll get many hits. If you want to test whether an alternative phrase is better or more correct, try the same thing. All mistakes are present in large numbers on Google, but the correct form, or at least the normally used form, is usually more than 10X more common. It turns out that "ices" is indeed proper British dialect for "kinds of ice cream" or "ice cream treats." Here is an excerpt from one of my top Google hits: Headline: "Sweets and ices of long ago - The magic tastes of childhood are...http://www.englishforums.com/English/SuchAPronouns/hwwj/post.htm#36907Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:31:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36907bratanniaIn my view, none of them is correct. Maybe other readers might have a different perspective, but to me, 'as... as...' is a fixed comparative expression and if you use the second "as," you also need the first: I am not as good a painter as she is. Technically, the "is" can be truncated off, leaving you with, "I am not as good a painter as she." This, however, would only really be found in a rather posh form of old-fashioned British. The underlying reason is that most English-speaking people are somewhat confused about what is correct here, and they are unsure about whether they would need to switch to "her" if the "is" was left off. Just people with very good old-style British educations collectively knew enough English grammar to...http://www.englishforums.com/English/IDidntButtonWedgeDrivenMean-Here/hwkr/post.htm#36906Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:57:30 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36906bratanniaThat's pretty colourful jargon. "Hot-button" has been around for awhile. This term describes an issue that is known to make many people immediately give a strong negative reaction. If the GOP campaigns along the lines of "under the Democrats, what you are going to see is a lot of "GAY MARRIAGES" and "DISCRIMINATORY HIRING OF MINORITIES" and "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DEMANDING TO USE THEIR LANGUAGES IN OUR SCHOOLS," then they will be relying on "hot-button" issues. What is the hot button in question? I speculate that it might be the red call-coming-in button on the telephone at radio stations where open-air political discussions go on. These call-in shows always get hundreds of calls whenever such issues are discussed. You can see that the...http://www.englishforums.com/English/Somebody/hwlc/post.htm#36904Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:33:48 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36904bratanniaSeems I read your second "somebody" posting first. Sorry about that. See there for more comments. In this case, only the second sentence with "anyone" in it would normally be used. It is considered the correct response. If you used the first, it would sound defiant; you would be considered to be parroting the question words back in the face of the questioner. "No, I am not 'seeing somebody'" This answer would be picking a fight. This scenario is not what you had in mind, azz, but I mention it because this kind of usage is often found in drama, especially in scripts involving rebellious teens. I don't want to tell you something is not English and then have it turn up in the next movie you watch.http://www.englishforums.com/English/SomebodyAgain/hwld/post.htm#36902Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:27:35 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36902bratanniaTheir meaning is different. The first one is a slightly unusual sentence, but it coherently suggests that you are not going out with a particular person you want to go out with. You would have to say it in a very confidential way to make it seem natural in conversation. The person who you're talking to would naturally ask, "and who is that 'somebody?'" The second one means that you are a bit depressed in general because you are not going out with anyone at all. The only incorrect thing is that, in both sentences, the comma needed after the word "being" is missing. "At the time being, I am..." Such adverbial phrases coming before the subject of the sentence always have that comma, but in the case of your sentence it is...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhyMoslemsHateWesternWorld-Yorker/8/grjg/Post.htm#36901Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:06:29 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:36901bratanniaAlwalidi, re" there are very big hands behind 9/11 ..bigger than Alqaida -- Hands which show your whole government helped them to do it ... " I find this the saddest part of the conspiracy-theory or holocaust-denial (explained in a previous post) approach to the 9/11 event. I heard this idea also quite a lot when I was in Egypt. There is the depressing idea there that a bunch of Saudia Arabian and Yemeni guys couldn't possibly have the power to pull off the 9/11 event. Why? Aren't Saudis and Yemenis just as clever as everyone else? Do they need American government help -- I don't think so. All they needed to do was: -- get some money from the Bin Laden billions (not difficult if you're going to blow up some Americans) -- send some...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhyMoslemsHateWesternWorld-Yorker/7/grjg/Post.htm#34944Mon, 28 Jun 2004 22:16:41 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34944bratanniaBush's war on Iraq was colossally stupid from day one and led exactly where anyone would predict it would lead -- what a disaster. And then that his people got into torture, against all US Army training under previous governments -- I hope he is fully prosecuted after the next election. But on the other hand, to say, "they are looking for reasons" and to make out that the US was happy or satisfied to see the World Trade Center bombing happen in order to have an excuse to attack the Taliban and to indulge a desire to kill innocent people -- that is completely unjustifiable. There is an art to being really angry without getting into that kind of backbiting -- there are some relevant chapters by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali in his Ihya 'Ulum...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HeDontAint/hbmh/post.htm#34941Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:53:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34941bratanniaEnglish used to have many regional dialects, and the use of "he does" instead of "he do" was not universal. Also, to pronounce "is" as "ais" and so to get "he ain't" as a contraction of "he aisn't" was a matter of dialect. You also sometimes see amn't. In Jamaican or US "ebonics," even today you can dialectically correctly say, "Brother, I be your best friend." These things are somehow enjoyable.http://www.englishforums.com/English/3Questions/hbnm/post.htm#34939Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:47:27 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34939bratannia1. Expert at. You can be "expert in" a field or area of specialization, but when it comes to individual actions, the gestalt of containment "in" something is gone. Being an "expert on" something usually connects with topic names, "expert on plant health" and so on. As an expert in the field of botany, she was a leading expert on plant health, and was expert at spotting aphids hiding under leaves. 2. People sometimes say that sentences ought not to be started with "because," but it's commonly done except in the most formal or artistically classical formats. It is common to use "since" or "as" as a substitute, but neither of those would sound at all strong in your enthusiastic sentence. Also, there isn't really a cause-and-effect...http://www.englishforums.com/English/KindlyListAndExplain/hrnb/post.htm#34935Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:07:35 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34935bratanniaActually, there is a pretty concise online English grammar help site at http://www.cs.wcu.edu/res/nasa_sp7084/sp7084cont.html It's still many pages, but I don't think you could get it much shorter than that.http://www.englishforums.com/English/EveryoneIMetWas/hbhm/post.htm#34830Sun, 27 Jun 2004 22:40:22 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34830bratanniaNo, it's fine. "Wearing a red tie/black hat" is not English, but "everyone I met was wearing a red tie and a black hat" would be quite OK, as would "everyone I met was wearing a red tie or a black hat." "Everyone I met" is a subject phrase, and "everyone" is a singular subject. The "one" takes logical precedence over the "every." "No one I met was wearing a red tie" is similar.http://www.englishforums.com/English/KindlyListAndExplain/hrnb/post.htm#34829Sun, 27 Jun 2004 22:35:49 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34829bratanniaAt first I thought this was going to be one of these impossible questions that was asking Forum participants to write a whole textbook just to answer one question. But then I read the question carefully, and it actually can be answered in less than 1000 words. Use "gramma" as a very informal term meaning "grandma" or "grandmother." Or use it as a alternative spelling of grama, a type of pasture grass, Bouteloua eriopoda and various species related to it. Don't mind me kidding you, guest, but you really did ask too much.http://www.englishforums.com/English/OriginOfWords/hbgg/post.htm#34826Sun, 27 Jun 2004 22:27:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34826bratanniaEtymonline has the origin of "quantify:" quantify - c.1840, as a term in logic, from M.L. quantificare, from L. quantus "how much" + facere "to make." Lit. sense of "determine the quantity of, measure" is from 1878. Who first added the "-er" and when is not stated, but if anyone in this forum has access to a Complete Oxford Dictionary, that would probably contain the information.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhyMoslemsHateWesternWorld-Yorker/7/grjg/Post.htm#34824Sun, 27 Jun 2004 22:18:56 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34824bratanniaI was just reading the post by mobde3a where he or she said (some typo errors changed): “when u said that cause of 11/sep. case .... could i ask r u sure that muslims did really that??? u r not quite sure ...know why ?? cause bn laddin u were talking about adopted it not did that ....there is a different between did and adopted…” I came across similar-sounding discussion quite often when I was traveling in Egypt last year, that is, that maybe some completely different group carried out the Sept 11 attacks. Some people, especially in Egypt where this was sort of a quasi-official government propaganda line, would really like to think that some parallel might emerge with the Timothy McVeigh bombing that took place in Oklahoma, and that...http://www.englishforums.com/English/NeedEditEssayReply/gqrp/post.htm#34503Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:46:14 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34503bratanniaGonghai, you need to organize things more logically and not repeat yourself so much, both in English and in any other language. Don't give yourself permission to repeat things unnecessarily by saying "in conclusion" or "in short." Good writing is economical. When I was young, one of the most popular games that children loved to play was "pogs." Pogs are small pieces of cardboard that you are supposed to throw a "slammer" at. If any of the pogs flips over, the person throwing the slammer gets to keep them. I found pogs to be fun because it was challenging and cheap, and the cardboard pieces were fun to collect. Also, I found that the game brought children together; for instance, you did not necessarily have to play with someone you...http://www.englishforums.com/English/Only/gqnn/post.htm#34501Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:19:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34501bratanniaMy feeling is that in conversation they would usually be equivalent, but on a posted sign or in a public announcement, the second form would be more restrained and hence more polite. Putting the "only" closer to the beginning of the sentence slightly increases the degree of insistence involved, especially if the "only" is stressed. There is a slight degree of rawness and American-ness about "This will only happen after Sunday." If you were script-writing for a Texan rancher, you might use the former, but if you were writing lines for the butler in an Agatha Christie play, you might prefer the latter. Mix and match: "This will only happen after we leave Iraq." "This will happen only after we leave Iraq." Choices for each...http://www.englishforums.com/English/EnglishRose/czwn/post.htm#34499Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:05:56 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34499bratanniaI didn't know that English women were regularly called English rose, but I did notice one time when I was travelling that, despite the diversity of modern England, young people with noticeably pink cheeks seemed to be especially common in that country. This effect might have been even more pronounced historically. This could be a topic for a PhD thesis. Is there a genetic reality to the English Rose concept?http://www.englishforums.com/English/Prepositions/gqqh/post.htm#34497Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:00:49 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34497bratanniaIt seems to have something to do with whether the target location is conceived of as one-dimensional or two-dimensional, and whether we are thought to be able to penetrate the target or not. For example, we have no idea what it would mean to be "in the beach." Even if we were buried there up to our necks, we would be in the sand rather than in the beach. On the other hand, a parking lot is a broad rectangle that can include us, so we can be in it. I can put a corn chip into my mouth, but not into my smile, even if I am smiling while I am eating the corn chip. For functional purposes, all languages just have collections of fixed expressions linking prepositions to various things and activities. At least in English we don't have to...http://www.englishforums.com/English/Grammar/hrch/post.htm#34496Thu, 24 Jun 2004 19:46:43 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34496bratanniaThat is a very good ambition to have. (I assume you were not expecting someone to write a textbook for you on this Forum.)http://www.englishforums.com/English/ShouldAffirmitiveActionAllowed/zvdh/post.htm#34495Thu, 24 Jun 2004 19:41:26 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:34495bratanniaI saw an interesting article in the popular magazine Psychology Today one time that showed that Americans of whatever race doing business-related job interviews with black candidates tended spontaneously to lower the level of their English usage, which in turn elicited similar casual/colloquial English back from the candidates. The net result was that black candidates tended to appear "blue collar," i.e., less well educated and less sophisticated than most candidates from other racial groups. This was just a social self-fulfilling prophecy effect, with the interviewers' expectations automatically leading them to predictable conclusions. The theoretical ideal for affirmative action would be to supply just exactly enough subtle positive...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ANeedleInAStackOfHay/ghbh/post.htm#31599Mon, 31 May 2004 22:21:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:31599bratanniaI was just reading a review of a book called Serendipity, and the reviewer quoted someone's humorous definition of this word: Serendipity is when you're looking for a needle in a haystack and the farmer's daughter comes out! Change that to the farmer's son if you're female, I guess. It just goes to show that this is a very well established, stock expression. The review I read was in Dutch, by the way, with "needle in a haystack" translated exactly. So the phrase is not even restricted to English.http://www.englishforums.com/English/PleaseTellCouldIdeaSentence/ghbl/post.htm#31597Mon, 31 May 2004 22:16:37 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:31597bratannia"Some idea" unifies all your reflections into an overall sense or gestalt of what the author is of the text you're studying is doing. You could also say that you get, or more usually, were able to come up with some ideas, that is, some separate thoughts, ABOUT (not of) "the content and how it is organized" As you preview the material, you may come up with some ideas about the content and how it is organized. Ordinarily, though, the idea that you would originate a bunch of separate ideas instead of approaching a single, unified understanding, would seem a bit exotic. After all, the original author was organizing something, and that means that there was a unified structure involved. It's contradictory to organize something as...http://www.englishforums.com/English/CupcakesAndMuffins/ghvm/post.htm#31595Mon, 31 May 2004 22:03:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:31595bratanniaThere might be some technical differences that a cook could tell us about, but from the consumer's point of view, the difference seems to be that a cupcake really is like a miniature cake: light in weight, sweet, and often covered with icing and decorations. It tends to be not too tall because it's texture isn't strong enough to allow for a very tall structure. It's always made with white flour as far as I know. A muffin is significantly heavier in texture and also in weight; with its cohesiveness, it can contain fruit, nuts or chocolate chips, which are not common in cupcakes. It is never iced and need not be particularly sweet. It can be made with ingredients as heavy as bran, and can be rather tall and have a large overhanging rim...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ThePassionOfTheChrist/4/zgql/Post.htm#31593Mon, 31 May 2004 21:48:09 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:31593bratanniaIf a storm of controversy could make an artistic work an empty vessel, then we would lose a lot of our culture to emptiness. Almost everything significant was controversial when first released; think of the scandal of those DH Lawrence novels that mentioned sex. I haven't seen the film and I don't know if it has any merit, but 50 years from now when the sandstorm of media fleas that have jumped into its hair have all long since jumped out to find new prey, it will still be there in the archives and presumably in people's home collections, neither filled nor emptied by the strident opinions long ago expressed in ephemeral publications. So anyone who's reviewing the film needs to think from that legacy perspective as well. In any case,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HivAids/gzml/post.htm#31589Mon, 31 May 2004 21:32:50 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:31589bratanniaThe problem with HIV is that it really IS that frightening. But in the gay community people found that in order not to just have people's minds go numb and have them all go into avoidance behaviour because they couldn't deal with the whole thing, it was better to have people working on the inside of the community pointing out positive things that could be done to prevent infection, and getting other, ordinary people to do the same. One reaction people have to fear is to want to become alienated from the people who seem to be the source, so if some powerful person on the TV or in the government says, "you better smarten up about this" or "you must do this" or "fear this or you will die," that just about guarantees closing most people's...http://www.englishforums.com/English/OnGroundThoseAbbreviationsCreated/vvwx/post.htm#30779Sun, 23 May 2004 17:40:56 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:30779bratanniaThere are two theories of Rx origin at http://www.endomail.com/articles/ad13rx.htmlhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/UsageOfForAndOf/gvgn/post.htm#30777Sun, 23 May 2004 17:36:34 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:30777bratanniaPrepositions like 'for' and 'of' always have a painful number of specific situations in which they are conventionally used, and general rules are not much help. 'For' has a sense of "to the benefit of" or "towards the purpose of," where as "of" has the sense of "belonging to," but these general ideas only help a little when many specific phrases are being memorized.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhyMoslemsHateWesternWorld-Yorker/3/grjg/Post.htm#30373Wed, 19 May 2004 23:13:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:30373bratanniaI am a Christian who feels a sense of brother(/sister-)hood with Islamic people. Since the surah Baqara was quoted a couple of messages back, let me copy in a verse from it that's a good basis for good relations among the monotheistic religions, if one needs to quote scripture to have good relations: " Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. " (verse 62 Yusufali translation). I know that historically in several islamic countries, an extra tax was placed on Christians and Jews, but this is not in or from...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDoYouPunctuateASign/zqkd/post.htm#29446Sun, 09 May 2004 22:27:49 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29446bratanniaThe item you are quoting is not a sentence, but rather a string of three sentences. Whether something like a sign is rendered in quotes or not is a matter of style, and some style manuals could be checked. It is not an absolutely fixed matter in English. Probably you are expected to state: She looked at the sign on the door of room 321. "Welcome to ESL. 10 languages spoken here." Many novelists, though, would render the same thing without the quotes: She looked at the sign on the door of room 321. Welcome to ESL. 10 languages spoken here. Somehow it is more exciting without the quotes. The period between the two sentences on the signs would be used, with or without the quotes, even though it would of course not be...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ReportedSpeech/zqkx/post.htm#29445Sun, 09 May 2004 22:21:10 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29445bratanniaNo, that sounds quite adequate. But the phrase "report this sentence" is of uncertain meaning. Do you mean "say the same thing?"http://www.englishforums.com/English/Own/zqxh/post.htm#29444Sun, 09 May 2004 22:19:02 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29444bratanniaNo. You could say, "I need an empty house of my own," though then it would seem you specifically wanted a house that would remain empty, or you could say, "I want an empty house to make my own." Or various other permutations. Depends what you're trying to say -- information that could be given along with such a query.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WalletOrPurse/zqzh/post.htm#29284Fri, 07 May 2004 14:43:35 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29284bratanniaMen usually have wallets, which are flat and fit in the pocket. Women may have them too, but if so they are sometimes kept in the purse, which has a handstrap or a shoulder strap. In other countries men may carry a little bag of money which could be called a purse, though if it has a linear opening at the top, for example a zipper, then it is a pouch.http://www.englishforums.com/English/CompoundAdj/zpgz/post.htm#29272Fri, 07 May 2004 13:19:55 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29272bratanniaYes, you use the adverb in all the cases you mention, such as freshly cut grass and highly evolved processor. I can think of a few more or less poetic expressions that go against that rule, such as "new-mown hay" -- in these cases, a hyphen is classically used. "Fresh-cut grass" would also be possible, but because of its sense of heightened excitement in contrast to "freshly cut grass," it sounds to the modern ear like an advertising slogan. High-evolved processor would not be possible at all.http://www.englishforums.com/English/PositionOfSubjectAndVerb/zpqk/post.htm#29206Thu, 06 May 2004 16:11:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29206bratanniaThere is a nice web page about inversion at http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/inversion01.html It lists several common situations.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowImproveGrammarSkills/zndx/post.htm#29204Thu, 06 May 2004 16:08:01 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29204bratanniaThe loss of the very rapid language-learning ability of children is biological -- there is nothing you can do about it. But there are ways that older people can still trick their brains into learning language. The key is to convince your mind that the thing you want to learn is both very important and very interesting. Of course, you cannot fool your own mind, so you have to do what you can to MAKE it actually become important and interesting. That's why so many native English speakers are unilingual. Most of them have had some language courses, but since they already know the world's most widely understood language, they often feel that learning a second language is not such a high priority. Just the people who find languages,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ToSeeXToWatch/zkmq/post.htm#29203Thu, 06 May 2004 15:57:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29203bratanniaMaj, I was often walking with my dog, so what we were doing, as far as I can tell, was monitoring.http://www.englishforums.com/English/CompoundAdj/zpgz/post.htm#29202Thu, 06 May 2004 15:53:42 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29202bratanniaYes, what you want to emphasize goes first. But if you are speaking out loud, you can add emphasis with your voice, so there is more flexibility over where you place the words.http://www.englishforums.com/English/CompoundAdj/zpgz/post.htm#29057Tue, 04 May 2004 16:10:16 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29057bratanniaAll three of your variations seem to be OK. They just differ slightly in emphasis. In flat, narrative text, you can put the item you are stressing first. The only tip is that in most writing, numbers up to and including ten are usually written out in full unless followed by symbols such as % or technically formatted unit measures, e.g. 3 m, 3 sec, 3 min. Adjectival use is too literary to fit comfortably with the technical format, so even in technical writing you would do better to say three-meter-long; 3-m-long would look very strange. To use a nonexistent word, it would look hacker-like.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowCanILearnEnglish/zpwr/post.htm#29056Tue, 04 May 2004 15:59:56 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29056bratanniaPlease say something more specific about what you hope to learn so that the person who would answer you knows where to begin. In order to answer your question as it is written, a person would have to list every English school, teacher and book available on the planet Earth, and also give many books' worth of instruction on how to learn languages. I don't think anyone could say how many days it would take to learn the grammar of any language, but for practical purposes two years of study and practice, 30 min to 1 hr per day, is usually a good start. I have no experience with immersion courses that might be faster.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhatDoesSoundMoreCatchy/zpzd/post.htm#29006Mon, 03 May 2004 21:30:38 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29006bratanniaThere are a couple of English problems to sort out. Firstly, are you saying that you are the leading analyst in France, or the leading analyst in what we Canadians call the Francophonie, or the leading provider of French-language analytical tools? Secondly, you will need to pluralize "solutions" in any variation on the first two slogans, if you are using "leader" in the normal way, referring to your business, not the product itself. If you are referring to the product, it can be a "leading product" but it is not itself "the leader," because that implies that it, not you, is making the important decisions. Catchy is usually clear, and because French can refer to a country or a language, it is ambiguous. Therefore, try: France's...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowImproveGrammarSkills/zndx/post.htm#29002Mon, 03 May 2004 20:23:35 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:29002bratanniaIt does help a lot if you have a good grammar book, one that really gives you all the rules but with plenty of interesting examples and illustrations. I'm not an English teacher so I don't know the title of such a book for English studies; maybe one of the other readers does. If you are involved in writing or reading in a relatively complex technical field in English, there is a good online site at http://www.cs.wcu.edu/res/nasa_sp7084/sp7084cont.html It explains things like 'sentence parallelism' that many second-language English learners never get to know about. But even though you're an advanced student, you may find it too complex, and there will certainly also be less complex versions of the good, interesting grammar book or...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ToSeeXToWatch/zkmq/post.htm#28963Sun, 02 May 2004 18:50:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:28963bratanniaEventually I think you'll run across this non-literal version of "to watch," for example when someone in a movie says, "I feel like my every move is being watched by the government." This doesn't literally mean that eyes are being used. A near-synonym of this is "to monitor." Spies, of course, also have their own verb, "to spy (on)." Sorry for delayed answer, Maj, I went on vacation.