Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2007

Here is a chart on the splitting of the Church. Alt.usage.english does
not like it. Perhaps we could get some cross-fertilization going on, if
that is allowed.
“The Splitting of the Church": a chart which shows the continuity of

Any possible reasons for Yeats choosing between "will" and "shall" in:
"Nine bean rows will I have there
...
And I shall have some peace there"

Probably you have already discussed the topic, but I missed it. As a matter
of fact, there have always been problems for me to syllabize safely in
English (unless with a dictionary at reach :))
On newspapers or texts, generally, it is very rare to find words split and

In old movies I occasionally hear of someone getting 'the third degree'
(even after pleading 'the fifth' <grin> ).
What does "the third degree" refer to? Does anyone ever just get the first
two?

What is the first word or sound you utter when answering the phone?

Eye strain, all that looking at minims and crochets?
'
Late night and sleep disorders?
Muscle strains from abnormal limb positions?

Can anyone think of any books or plays with spooneristic titles? The
only one that comes to my mind is Shaw''s "Too Good to be True."

Somehow I have the feeling that "to give down" isn't very popular
these days in such contexts. True?
-----
This means that the most vulnerable organ will give down and, unless a

Someone wrote this to me elsewhere:

Does this make any grammatical sense? What is this person trying to say
in the first half of this sentence?

I read on a couple of sites that the English R is an alveolar approximant,
and the American R is a retroflex approximant. In lay man's terms, what is
the difference? To my untrained ear, the normal English R (not the posh
flapped R) and the American R sound pretty much the same, ...

I'm a audiovisual translator working on the French version of a American
TV series, and I have the following dialog:
two characters (a man and a woman, video gamers) are chatting...
He says:

Hi, native speakers of English,
Does the phrase "be (as) sick as a dog" have two meanings: a) be very sick
(= ill); b) vomit, throw up? Could it be that a) is especially AE and b)
especially BE?

Is the sentence below correct? Any help will be appreciated.
This chapter has four sections as follows: the Section 4.1
is to discuss the Case A, the Section 4.2 is to discuss the
Case B, the Section 4.3 is to perform a comprehensive

In written english, usually when the person we are talking about is
unknown we write his/her as indicated in the following sentence:
"the visitor should check his/her pasport before he/she leaves the
check point"

I went to the cinema
I went to market
Why is there an article for the first sentence?
Thanks