Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2008

After installing and paying for the latest version of AVG's formerly
free virus protection program, I found it to be such an overbearing
nuisance when surfing or downloading, I removed it this morning.
What a pity, for I think many AUE members have found it to be a

1) Deterrence *is determined not only* by the precision, but the
magnitude of sanctions.
2) The real problem of tribalism *is not only based* on ethnic origins,
but also on the basis of two opposed "economic tribes".

"My outside technical interests are steered on cognition functioning
priciples of human psyche. Especially on psychological aspects of
interpersonal behaviour and  clinical psychology."
Could I translate it better?

To be loved *is* the greatest happiness of life.
I know it is correct, but what if we have 2 subjects?
To love and to be loved *is* the greatest happiness of life.
To love and to be loved *are* the greatest happiness of life.

Natural fiber-reinforced composites have been attracted researchers
for their unique properties, such as strength, toughness, high
modulus, low-cost, low density and environmentally friendly.
Similarly, polymer-nanoclay composites have been widely investigated

I became aware today that I pronounce the "t" in "amateur" as a
proper "t" (and the "teur" as "ter" rather than "toor").
Burchfield notes the three versions, but says the "ama-chur" and
"ama-toor" versions are now (writing in 1996) minority

Is "woe to his sight" correct usage of English? I need to know for a poem
I'm writing.

On Apr 15, 2:23 am, John Crinnion <jcrinn...@yahoo.com> wrote:

He is learning how to play the piano.
He is learning to play the piano.
He learned how to play the piano.
He learned to play the piano.

Re "Didn't boing?"
Could it mean that the check wasn't rejected by the bank? Or that it
didn't disappear/wasn't even issued by the employer?
------

Would you take "hardscoured" to me "polished" or, on the contrary,
"rough," in this context. I'd go for the latter, but the etymology begs
the contrary.
Don't find it in any dictionaries. No big surprise by now:-)

In Russian, there's a euphemism for infidelity which translates into
English as "straying left."
Does anyone know how to write this expression in Russian, with Roman
characters? ( my Cyrillic is a bit rusty)

can you help me revise the language
When Maugham traveled around China, he specially visited the
representative of conservatism Ku Hongming. Someone even said: “If you
go to Peking, you may skip a visit to the old Imperial Palace, but you

Do we all agree with Geoffrey Pullum (I do):
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=100#more-100

While I do understand the phrase "He attended a minor public school",
I find that I can't explain it very well.  The problem is in not being
able to identify which are the *major*, or not minor, public schools.
If all of the public schools in the UK are 100%, then what percentage