Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2007

I have started a new site:  www.askaboutenglish.blogspot.com
I will answer any question about the language, plus there are some
free resources.
Please come and ask me a question.

Of Ducks and Platypuses
What changes would you, the grammarian, make in the following without
changing the intent?:
How often do you watch Hallmark Hall Of Fame? Would you follow de

what is the most acceptable of the below (at least, what is completely
incorrect)?
1. Agreement on the Sale and Purchase of Shares
2. Agreement for the Sale and Purchase of Shares

A sentence from a petition:
If not still in service, my service terminated within six months of
the filing of my petition.
Does it mean the service terminated no more than 6 months BEFORE or

In today's Guardian, in an article of that title [1] by Julie Bindel on
female crime writers, Val McDermid is quoted thus:
"In some crime novels [by men], the victims are one-dimensional
characters who merely exist to be slayed."

I run a website - Braingle.com - that allows people to submit their
own trivia questions, among other things.  One of the most common
grammar problems that I am encountering is people misusing "which" and
"what".  The second most common problem is described below.

This is certainly a point of contention among English scholars and
definitely the subject of much debate among my friends, so I bring it
to AEU to see what you have to say about it.
For those not familiar with the term, the "Oxford comma" refers to the