Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2008

What's the generic term for an X-Acto knife? I mean these dealies:
<http://www.xacto.com/p_cuttingtools_knives.asp>

Does
"that I should do much as I was doing"
mean
"that I should do things quite in the way I was doing them?"

"Orkard," is this (Victorian?) slang for "drunk?"
Also, the meaning of "stand up" in
"she'll drink anything she can stand up and pay her money for"
----

I can probably ask many women this question and they would all give me
a different answer according to what they feel and how they think a
confident woman should be.
Some would say that a confident woman should know who she is, where

From an email regarding problems with the university's inter-site bus
services:
"The bus industry terminology for a bus that has no more room on it is
that the bus went "bust"."

I am a Chinese graduate student. The following is part of my master's
thesis. Who can help me polish my language. Thank you very much.
William Somerset Maugham (1874--1965), born in Paris, is one of the
most popular writers in British literature. He has created about 20

Getting the decision to start shaving your pubic hair is easy. Doing
it is a bit more difficult.
Using the guidelines in this article, you will find that pubic hair
shave can be a simple task. First, is your pubic hair shave decision

Anyone can help me understand why is it "years" and not "year", please?
Thanks

"To burn his house down in order to get his roast sucking pig," is this
an idiom?
-----
True, he had lost all his money, his reputation, and his position as a

I'd like to ask another question about the correct usage of is/are in
a sentence I came across.   I was wondering if the following is
sentence is grammatically correct by using "is" after the very
discuss, or if it would be preferable to use "are"?  While it seems

I have a neighbor who is sending his 7-year-old son to a Spanish
language school.
The boy is quite motivated to learn his father's language, and to send
emails to his Tio Paco.  He is also very interested in ninja

I hope I didn't keep any of yous waiting 'cos I was in detention tonight
then I had a fight on the way home then I had to get my tea. I'm only
allowed on the compy for half a hour tonight Mum sez.

Is there anything grammatically incorect with the following sentence?
"I think this is a racket, a rip-off."
Is there any need to add 'and' as a conjunctive between 'racket' and
'rip-off'?

"He said it rose on him," does this mean to make one sick, like food
riseing in the food tract?
-----
[Mr. Jupp complains about Pryer]

Is the exclamation "I say, ..."
used in AmE also?
I thought of it as mainly BrE. Perhaps the character is British, not
sure yet.