Discussion Groups

It has been generally agreed here that the bare subjunctive ("it is
vital that he go" instead of "... should go") is leftpondian.  I was
interested to see a Victorian gentlewoman quoted, in an article on
some challenges to Darwinism, using it quite unself-consciously:

"Eric Walker" <email@owlcroft.com> wrote in message news:hml7ri$jl7$1@news.eternal-september.org...

Owing to the inconveniences which attend the shifting of the calendar,
and attempting in passing to create a more perfect Church calendar, I
say the following:
1. That Christmas day should be fixed to a Sunday, and this should be

If you say (e.g.) "Needless to say, I was annoyed," you're showing
that there is a need to say it... is there a word/
phrase for such a phrase (one which is only used when it isn't true)?

It's been quite a few years since posting to this group. My how you've
changed!  Anyway,  I am doing a brochure for our church and a question
came up.  We are writing about the United Methodist Women as a group.
But the brochure reads "The UMW". So - do I say "The UMW has" or the

I assume there is no doubt that "criminy" is a way of avoiding saying
"Christ".**
What about "For crying out loud"?  Is that the same thing?**
**These are English usage questions.  Someone off-topic maybe is the

This is what I like about this:
            http://surftofind.com/truth
All the heavy digging has been completed in the above link. giving us
all what we expect  -the truth and nothing but....

I am looking for any English sound files (.mp3)
recorded by native speakers and their scripts.
I downloaded mp3 files and scripts from SpotLight
(www.spotlightradio.net).It). It is excellent but uses

I am having trouble to get the meaning of this 'weasely black guts'
piece in the sentences I cite below. Does 'guts' in this case mean
something like 'fortitude' or 'attitude', perhaps? But to pilfer it
out? If my assumption as to the meaning of 'guts' was correct I'd

how can I call in English a thing which e.g. "cannot be closed"?
Uncloseable or unclosable? Are they any rules for leaving or throwing
away the final letter E while adding the -able suffix?
Btw. unclos(e)able or inclos(e)able?

A friend of mine used the phrase "Worship and Music by 13 A.D." Here
13 A.D. is the name of the band. Shouldn't it be "Worship and music by
the 13 A.D. ?

Does anybody understand what does the wolf say at the end of the video?
http://video.telegraph.co.uk/services/player/bcpid1529569286?bctid=5524339001
Roger

I hope I am in the right newsgroup.
Some years ago I saw someone using a sentence similar to:
"This is very good a car."
vs

What year will it be next year? I refer to the common era calendar,
although "other calendaring systems are available".  
In the common era calendar, next year will of course be "2010".  But my
question is: will we stick with the "noughties" habit where it will

I have an instance where someone is using "English"
(probably not AmerEnglish) words when writing and
I wondered if these can give a reasonable clue as
to what part of the world this individual comes

I am having an argument with the RFC-Editor. My co-author had written:
 but some of them may be required in certain types of article.
and she changed it into
  but some of them may be required in certain types of articles.

If you are interested you can preview Edgar Allan Poe's (animation)
www.TheTell-TaleHeart.com/
Teacher packet.

In my work, I end up always using the term 'contact information' for
stuff like address, phone, e-mail, etc. and I'm getting tired of using
it. Is there a smaller synonym for it?
Thanks

I'm looking for a "native english" alternative to the word "photograph".
To give an example, we have the word "Lichtbild" in German, which
describes the concept of an image created by or using light in native
german words. Is there an analogous word in English or has "photography"

Can anyone point me to a site where I can download an English dictionary in
a format I can load into a database?
I'm hoping to download in CSV format or similar, with a list of English
words and their word types, eg noun, verb etc

1. Your obstetrician has conformed to this certificate of receipt.
2. The board of directors has postponed the general meeting of
shareholders further to some unexpected incidents
Do the above sentences makes sense? Are they grammatically correct? In

A friend of mine replied me writing following song title
nobody cheated nobody lied! you'r stupid.
I searched Google and find as follows in Wikipedia
This is the title of a song by Duane Steele an award winning country

A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted.
What should it be?
Regards
NSP

I am translating a text from English and i met an expression that i
dont understand
What does "shake the lots" mean?
in the sentence "When we shook the lots, to me fell the hoary sea,