Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

[x'post to several language newsgroups,
f'up2 alt.languages.english for all the other languages no NG exists for]
Hello to you out there in the world!
For our new company brochure we'd like to translate our company name

I have recently bought software for English writing. It is really a
good software.
It not only checks & corrects English grammar but it also has one
excellent text enrichment feature, which suggests adjective & adverbs

The claim was made by someone on soc.culture.indian. Can it be true?
Suppose a Tibetan to English dictionary has a broad transcription to
narrow transcription mapping table on page 1. Suppose the table has
entries for subphonemes of a neutral dialect (perhaps a synthetic

The I Ching or "Book of Changes" is an ancient Chinese philosophy book
and book of wisdom. The I Ching has been used for more than 5000 years
as an aid to making decisions, predicting the future, etc. So, if
nothing else, it is a long-standing and popular source of wisdom and

   does "I stink" mean anything like "I'm not good at it/hopeless at
doing it" ?? I think it's AmE
thanks

Today, my wife and I were chatting with a member of her curling team,
Connie. Connie said she hoped she could make it to tomorrow morning's
game.
She said that they had closed the church in Indian Head (a town) for

I wonder if "Don't judge the book by its cover" could also mean that
something appears to be good, but actually it's not?
I usually understand that the proverb means that something has more than
meets the eye in a good way, although its appearance is not pleasing.

I have always seen the word follow-up hyphened. But the phrase, "I'm
just following up" is not hyphened.
Am I correct in that or can that vary in American English usage?
Also: backlogged, piled-up

Well, it's actually "nearly Friday humour" in this time zone.
I attended a dinner tonight, and the after-dinner entertainment
consisted of a fellow who calls himself "Steve Stubblejumpski". He
does rural prairie humour, farm oriented for the most part. He had

I think we're dealing with putative "shoulds" here, in
"wretched that she should have thought it ...," correct?
------
[Bernard feels attracted to Lenina, but suffers because of his

What the hell is this?? Google has changed their interface again, and
there is no more 'View as tree' option, it's now called 'Show message
list' which is unintutitve and it's obvious Google wants to HIDE this
feature!

Try to say the alphabet without moving your lips or your tongue. Every
letter will sound exactly the same. - from www.odd-info.com
- Jeff
www.unusualcoach.com

An acquaintance used "cobbed" today to mean "took" or "stole."
("Copped" is what I've heard, and even used once or twice; I think it
was fresh in the 1960s.)
He definitely uses a 'b' sound -- not a 'p' sound. I asked him about the

I am trying to confirm some observations on sentences embedding "as
though/if" constructions.
Google stats indicate that "as though she had" may be followed
by "she was," but not by "she were" in the same sentence. Thus in the

When I bend my finger backward or forward pretty hard, esp at the joint
to the palm, it makes a sound "toc".
In English, how will you call that sound and could you explain why it
sounds like a crack ? thanks