Discussion Groups / English Usage / October 2006

Do any of my fellow English pronounce "toy" and "boy" with the same vowel? I
don't, but I saw a vowel chart suggesting the vowels in "voice" and "boy"
were pronounced the same. I pronounce "voice" with the vowel as in "toy",
but "boy" as "b", with the "au" in "taut" followed  by ...

Here comes another sentence which I find hard to explain.
.... Most people do not seem to accept dreaming as part of their lives.
They appear to see it as an irritation little habit, like sneezing or
yawning. I have never understood this. My dream life does not seem as

I was talking to an 80-year-old friend this evening on the phone, and he
used the word "sphilkus." He wasn't sure of the spelling.
It's Jewish/Yiddish (?) and means, he said, having lots of troubles.
So, is the spelling correct? It is still in use these days? I'm not a

Today George Bush said of Iran's latest steps to reprocess uranium:
"The idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable, and the
international community must double our efforts to stop it ..."
As this is a usage group I'm going to put to one side the claim about

I'm reading "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini.
In below phrase,
--
Around him shuffled twelve Urgals with short swords and round iron

My dearly beloved Englishers; It is, Lyrics Appreciation Time!
In the past months, i have this dance song called Beautiful Things in
my computer by happenstance. It was passed to me from my brother, and
the file name is just Track 04. It is a lovely dance song. I love dance

What gives? My high school english teacher insisted there's no
difference between some/anyone and some/anybody but I was never really
convinced and fifteen years later I'm still not sure.
TIA, and I'd like to retrospectively thank the group for useful and

A gem of legal writing (note the "of or by"):
"No warranty is hereby given by Company A or Company B with respect to
the non-infringement of or by Company A or Company B of the Company's A
trademarks".

"Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus  (Limited)
Nicole Kidman stars as photographer Diane Arbus, considered one of the
most bold and mysterious artists of the 20th century. "
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/comingsoon.html

Shall I capitalize both words or just the first one
when some composite words such as "wide-area"
and "response-based" are used in a title?
That's say which one below I shall choose:

I was just wondering what the experts here thought about using "Now"
for emphasis in an expository piece such as the following hypothetical
one.
"Given the evidence that an asteroid could destroy the earth, it would

Wow!I found a new super cool online shop!!!
www.loveinfashion.com
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/offer86020/albums
supplying AF,Juicy,Rmc,7,RR, Diesel,TR,Evisu, Adidas,

Which of these is correct, and why?
I am a native English speaker, so I don't need to be told that the
first is idiomatic.
Thanks,

Is better to say "show kindness" or "express kindness"?

I DID IT BY EXPERIMENT AND THAT SURPRISE TAKES TO ME.  RECIBI A
MESSAGE, THAT NEXT I PUT TO THEM AND FIRST IT GAVE LAUGHTER ME, HABIA
ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT THESE THINGS WERE PURE LIE BUT ASKS TO ME  So that
NOT TO DO IT? LATER PENSE IN EXPERIENCING SINGLE TOTAL WERE 5 DOLLARS