Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

On Sunday 14 January 2007 05:39, Ammu wrote:

Help me with those articles
-He went out without a hat
-I want some salad with the meat
Why do they have article? Because of "preposition, WITH, WITHOUT?"

I am sure that when I was at school, the "eighteen hundreds" meant the
first decade of the eighteenth century, followed by the eighteen tens,
twenties, etc. When did the current, (to me very irritating) very
prevalent alternative meaning arise? It always makes me jump when

Years ago when i was studying English in a English high school, the
word 'help' is like the word 'make' and is not followed by 'to'.  For
example, I make him do something and I help him do something.  These
days, I see people frequently use 'to' after the word 'help' in 'I help

Is the following sentence correct?
"You will find it a difficult book."
----------------
A learner asked this question at a forum, and I managed to find this

My husband gave me a board game for Christmas: "Stratego", from Milton
Bradley. I see from the [nice, wooden] box that it is from their
"Nostalgia Games" series.
Imagine my disappointment, when I opened the box, to find - instead of

When you assemble a printed circuit board using surface mount components,
they should all lie nice and flat against the board. They put a dab of
superglue (BrE = cyanacrylic adhesive) under them so that they can run the
board through a molten-solder fountain to solder the components ...

Previously, I'd always assumed the following usage pattern to be correct:
   o I *proved* it.
   o I have *proven* it.
   o It has been *proven*.

Couldn't find this anywhere:
"ring the lemons."
It probably designates a "failed attempt," but I'm not sure.
---------

Some foods or drinks seem to just blend together to produce a new
flavour like pork sausage and beans or mango and orange. In some
combinations, one flavour seems to predominate however much you try to
adjust the proportions; adding lemonade or lime juice to beer seems to

here's a question about the - just great - movie "Inherit the Wind".
In a scene where Brady and Drummond have a conversation
on a porch, Drummond tells a story from his childhood.
He wanted to have a special toy by then which - judging

I am interesting to get G.E.D. to do a further study in undergrad in
USA, I found this site: http://www.belfordhighschool.com/index.asp  I'm
not sure that they are diploma mill or not, so could you pls kindly
tell me... Also, is there any website that I can check that the

after reading several chapters in my English grammar book I, an ESL
writer, am still a little confused by some sentence structures.  It
would be very nice if you could point out some of the rules I am
missing.

How would you understnd the prhrase "historic mistakes"?
Are they mistakes which have been made in the past, or are they
mistakes that will have an effect in the future, thereby changing
history, or are they some third thing.

I would appreciate a lot some help to explain the morphology and the
sound changes that affected these words and those of the rest of their
paradigm.
Thanks a lot!!