Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

We are quite used to confusing or ambiguous headlines, but I had to read
the article to find out what this one meant:
   Fleet lost in fire college blaze
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8053733.stm

Ladies and Gentlemen:
In an editorial of a Taiwan local English newspaper,
[ http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan-issues/2009/05/15/208178/Assembly-a
nd.htm
]

What is the plural of Green Beret?
I know that the word for a group of them is the same.
But what is the word when a number is specified. One GB, two GB, three
GB?????

I have been away for a while, so I don't know if anyone has commented on
this already. It seems that the good Professor has been moonlighting as
a car designer.
http://spira4u.wordpress.com/

# I think my song has lasted
# Almost long enough
# The subject's interesting
# But the rhymes are mighty tough

What's a Chav?

After consulting dictionaries, encyclopedias, chronicles and other
historical documents, I resort to aue as  the ultimate authority on
usage.
Does the word "homestead" also mean "residence" in _contemporary_

Does the average English native speaker understand concrete as the
antonym of abstract? If not, how would they say it.
Some dictionaries mention "factual" as a synonim of concrete, but for
me it sounds a bit weird. Is it correct? Isn't there a substantial

What is the opposite of a college graduate?  
Is it a non-college graduate?
Is it a non-college-graduate?
Much more often than not, in situations like this one, involving lots

Or is there?

http://www.ozini.com/?p=5342
just a funny pic...

In “The Fifties,” David Halberstam wrote, “He suspected that the
Republican candidate would be not Robert A. Taft, but Dwight
Eisenhower, whom he thought might make a good president.”
“Whom”?! How can we put any credence in the historical analysis of a

"I'll see you in less than six weeks."
This should take less than two days."
Seems to be acceptable, but why isn't it "fewer than"?

-----
TO what a cumbersome unwieldiness
And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,
    But that I did, to make it less,

"For may I miss, whene'er I crave,
If I know yet what I would have."
would this mean:
"For let me miss, whenever I crave, if I happen to know what's the