Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

Juli Inkster is a famous woman in America, may be in some other
countries, too.  A friend of mine from a non-English speaking country
whose first name is also Juli.  But he is male.  He have been sending
resumes to look for a job in the U.S. To his geat disappointment, in

I have the impression that in this case the meaning of
"the car pulled ahead"
isn't
"the car moved in the lead (of a column of vehicles)"

What is the meaning of "even" here? Its usage, combined with "only"
confuses me, even though I think I know what the author meant:-)
which is probably:
"Only one or two were able to barely sputter."

What is a tautology?
Yes, I know I can look it up, but my question goes beyond what the
dictionary says.
Decades ago I looked it up and the dictionary said "A clear and

A young man from Santa Fe has alleged that when he was 17, he had sex
with a woman who worked for the religious organization that oversees
the school he was going to; he described her as a staff member of the
school.  (The New Mexico law about sex with minors says that

Which is the correct usage:
   - A few people are amused, but the larger number IS disgusted.
   - A few people are amused, but the larger number ARE disgusted.
I can see it either way. Number is a singular noun, so IS, but it refers

re:  There
Let me ask a question about the usage of "there" in following
sentences from a novel.
"I'm a felonious moonlighter. There. The whole truth. You're going to

Can anyone give me a link to a reliable list of AmE Irregular Verbs
somewhere on the net. I have certainly searched the net already and found a
few lists of the sort but they kind of tend to present both BrE and AmE
variants of the verbs in an inconsistent and confusing way, at ...

What is the difference between "doctor" and "nurse"? that is the
verbs, "to doctor" and "to nurse".

It seems to be twenty-ten according to most people I've heard so far.
Have a good one everybody!

Has anyone experienced anything like the following? This morning, as I
was merrily reading along, my Kindle froze when I hit the Next Page
button. I pushed the Home button, I think it was, and the device went
through what looked like a reboot, with around a minute elapsing

At Google Books:
2,900 on "was a long time ago"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22was+a+long+time+ago%22&btnG=Search+Books
623 on "has been a long time ago"

"this a way/that a way"
seem dialect, right?
---
[The hunting party spreads for the kill]

Today, I hear my boss, an native English speaker said that :"you can
send her an email if you are interesting in applying for that
position".
I am very surprised because I think he should have said:..... If you

Hi, I'm looking for a rhyme (or nursery rhyme) that commences:
"But a child that's born on a new year's day / is ..."
Thanks.