Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

My apologies for my ignorance on this matter, but I'm puzzled on when
to hypenate adjectives when they occur after the noun they modify.
Sometimes you use hyhpens as in the following sentence: The device is
file-oriented. Well, I'd certainly use the hyphen here. But I'm very

On Old Time Radio, Sunday nights on WAMU or www.wamu.org , on Our Miss
Brooks, Mr. Conklin said "My wife's sister sent her son to stay with
my wife and myself."  A 1949 episode, where he uses the pretentious
incorrect form of "myself".  Now Mr. Conklin is a sort of pretentious

I've been looking at nouns and their characteristics--singular/plural,
count/non-count and concrete/absolute. I thought that absolutes
couldn't be counted, but a friend of mine pointed out that we can
say/write "He had several loves in his youth." Justice, honesty, faith,

"He's got a chip on his shoulder" means, I think, "He's a bit argumentative
and grumpy".
What is a 'chip', and why is it on someone's shoulder?

Be tolerant: I'm a beginner
Nobody (I think it is for affirmative sentence, but I am not sure)
Anybody (for negative?)
No one (no one can stop me); can i say "nobody can stop me?"

Being that time of year I have a festive question.
Both the words partyer and partier are listed by dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/partier
However I haven't found either of these two words in any other on-line

Is there away to test or know if you have a parenthetical element? I
understand the definition, but how as the writer do you identify the
parenthetical element when you're not sure.
Racheal

Any comments on the title of Bobby Robson's autobiography "Farewell but not
Goodbye"?
Adrian
p.s. Just rediscovered Google Groups Beta. Hooray!

My niece's boyfriend does not have a job.  He was scheduled to go for a
upper and lower GI.
He slept until 2PM and did not go to the appointment.  He lives with
his parents and uses his mom's car for transportation.

It is a german word used when a chess player is...up the creek, no
choice but awful ones.  But is the word ever used in any other game,
any other context?
Hobson's choice might be better understood?

I have just heared the expression that sounded like "evil knievel",
sorry for any spelling mistakes. The thing is that when I spell it like
that google comes out with lots of link that do not seem to be of much
use in the context of a reply/expression I think I heared it used.

Hi! I'd be much obliged if you could tell me what, you think, "processing
losses" mean here:
"The sum insured is at least XXX euros fixed for property and financial
losses including processing losses".

I need to find a word that can be used appropiately in all three
sentences. I would appreciate if somebody could help me:
 1. You have a ....... choice. Either you obey the rules or you leave.
     The tennis player beat his opponent in ...... sets.

I understand the greeting phrase "Happy New Year" means "I wish
you a Happy New year." rather than "Have a Happy New Year." In
this connection, can someone tell me whether "Good morning!" means
that "I wish you a good morning or that "Have a good morning." or

What does this actually mean?
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the
dog