Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2007

When you say something like "trading X for Y", do you use it in such as
way that X is the thing you are giving up, and Y the thing you're
getting in return? Or do you use it the other way around?
I've seen both. Personally I think the first one is the logical one, but

I need help with some translation. I´m translating Helen Fielding´s
Bridget Jones Diary and I got to a phrase saying ..."while puting
crosses in the end of sprouts". No further explanation or sequence
from which I could learn the meaning. It doesn´t even have any

I know that punctuation goes inside quotations, but what if that
punctuation changes the meaning of the sentence. For example, what if
the quotation is a sentence, but you are asking a question.
In other words, which of these is correct?

Is "rambling the South" a recognized idiom and what does it mean?
Also, I wonder if "this three year" is still in current usage.
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A poor clerk I, 'Arnaut the less' they call me,

I have no idea what "lees" could mean in this context.
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I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd

Although sadly tragic, an interesting usage of words
on national television news this evening.
"Six soldiers died today and four more soldiers
died yesterday."

Don't believe (or believe in) fotos. They are deceptive.
Do you use "belive" or "believe in"?
Thanks.

What does 'content area' mean?
In what way do you use this set of words?

When would one use "up" with "gallop" and when not?
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Into their joy four heralds galloped up with news.
W.H. Auden, The Council

I've been browsing, as one does, the offerings on iTunes. In the
course of this, I've discovered a group of 'singers' with the name
'Anal c.nt'. Having listened to a clip, it's fairly clear that the
music isn't really for me - catholic as my tastes actually are.

There was no unified measuement(s) in the Middle Ages.
There war no unified measuement system in the Middle Ages.
Which of the sentences above sounds more idiomatic?
Thanks

I ran across batlonim while reading "The Dybbuk" (plural dybbukim).
It's the plural of batlon, a pious idler. I was curious
about other Yiddish plurals that end in -nim:
 askonim: functionaries

Would you say that "counterdrawn" means "mirrored/echoed" in this
context? Seems to be a rare word.
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On the pavement

tingle-airy is mentioned in "Say It My Way" by Willard R. Espy,
but I can't find it in an online dictionary.
Is it a crank-organ, played by a hurdy-gurdy man?

I have three text-oriented trash-sites that I enjoy reading when I am
bored out of my mind, because they make me really laugh out loud. Loud
or loudly?
They are: