Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2008

What is that mean
"No dice" ?
Boki.

What does "nominal" mean in this context below from USA Today today?
"The crew is alive and well. The landing was nominal, but by a backup
design," said Anatoly Perminov, chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency,
after the [errant] 4:30 a.m. ET landing on Saturday.

E.&O.E.

Is "Oyster men" some kind of British expression? Or am I thinking of
Ulster men?

I have read this phrase in several of Louis L'Amour's books.
From the context, the meaning seems to be "a long time ago" but does
anyone know the history of this phrase?
Thanks

OK, I think I know what "nonce" means, but how about "on the nonce?"
-----
[he's able to extricate himself from a deep pit]
... [I] began my descent on the nonce in what I hoped was a southerly

A: Let's get four pounds of beef.
B: But *this/*that is almost two kilos. Is it too much?
A: No, that's okay.
Which pronoun should I use in the second sentence?

Have you ever come across the expression "puffin muffins". If you have, what
does it mean please?

The hot word of the day/week/whatever seems to be "crack," in all its
forms. Have you noticed all the spam "cracks"?
Such usage may make it easy to include such spam in blanket killfiles,
but we'll need to be careful not to include the word in actual,

Is there such a word as heat light in english?

Improving a sentence
Hi dear friends.
Can anyone help me improve this sentence?
'However, the point was that not only did the pupils protest against

A lot of times I am unsure whether to use 'was' or 'were' in sentences
like:
If x was/were y, I would....
The grammar books give an example like: If I were king...

I'm curious about the accent of Zeljko Ivanek playing lawyer Ray Fiske
in the TV show "Damages" (which has just had a run on British TV). As
a BrE speaker I can tell that it's some kind of Southern American
accent, but not much more. To me it sounds kind of "extreme", perhaps

I've lost track of the origin of the thread but thought I would report
that the word cropped up in a lecture I attended last week, given by a
Chinese professor who has lived in Australia for many years.
Public encounters with words one has been sensitised to by aue can be

this is the useful blog about english
www.lingua-comp.blogspot.com