"Alot": Something the Internet informed me about. (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

Mary: You have a delightful way with the language to get your points across. If insecure about your comprehension of grammatical rules, take heart in that the original point of this entire thread is that most people also aren't watching the rules very carefully.

If any of your classes are in English, writing or even linguistics, I'm sure you'll do quite fine.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Isn't it simply a matter of etiquette, in that he's still entitled (under US conventions) to be addressed as Mr President, or President Ford, when speaking to or of him, but obviously since he's not the current president, you certainly can't refer to him as "The President", and for clarity the modifer "former" is added.

It's a US thing, isn't it? After all, nobody calls John Major "Prime Minister" any longer, although obviously written articles may reference him as being a former Prime Minister. (Mrs Thatcher has since been given a peerage and therefore is referred to as Baroness Thatcher instead). Similarly even retired senators and governors are still addressed as such.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yes. Whatever the highest title an elected official achieves, he can be addressed as such even in retirement.

 

[Mary M S]

Thanks Mike!

A science leaning, currently. (we’ll see!) I managed to skate in years past because I was a bookworm, when I bothered to bear down, I instinctually knew what ‘sounded’ right without grasping any specific rules. My creative content earned me a certain ‘grace’ factor with professors, but inattention and lack of a need to be more precise, has ruined that advantage.

Factoring life experience with the ‘Science’ types, as a personality whole, I have learned they prefer the i’s dotted.

In other words. My goose is cooked.

 

[Holadem]

Not exclusively. I believe it is the same in France as well. It certainly is in other french speaking nations.

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H

 

[Holadem]

A long time ago I started a thread on the expressions "If I had done this" vs "If I would have done this". Much to my surprise, I was assured that the latter, which sounds so utterly wrong to my ears, is correct as well. That may very well be, but that is one phrase that will never cross my lips. The fact that I mostly hear it from people with marginal grammar skills (typically hispanic*) does nothing to reassure me of the correctness of this expression. Are you guys sure it is ok to say "If I would have" ????!!!!!!!!!!

Yuck.

(*) before you get offended, read what I wrote carefully, and apply some elementary set logic. There ya go.

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H

 

[Mike Frezon]

Holadem:

If I would have thought you were wrong, I'd have said so.

 

[Holadem]

You know, this is the place to unload some of my frustrations as a non-native speaker. Just what the hell is a "doozy"? I could run a search right now and find out, but it's just frustrating beyond belief that I can't even gather the meaning from the context of its use! .

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H

 

[Edwin-S]

 

[MarkHastings]

and today's meaning isn't so much about something excellent or appealing, as it is about something largely unpleasant or bad.

Was it Bugs Bunny who first said: "Watch that first step doc, it's a DOOZEY!"

 

[Greg*go]

I'd like to chime in with one annoyance I have that I hear people say all the time in the office where I work. There is a call center for customers nationwide, and the problem is when employees tell customers "We're open until 8 pm Eastern Standard Time."

We're not open until 8 pm EST, we're currently open until 8 pm Eastern Daylight Time.

I know Indiana is in the Eastern Time zone, and the majority of the state did not recognize daylight savings time for many years. I think that's changed recently, but it still bothers me "alot" when people refer to "standard time" regardless of actual time the East Coast is using at the moment.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Or you could just give your times in GMT.

 

[Mike Frezon]

How about Ned (Stephen Tobolowsky) Ryerson in Groundhog Day?

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> After all, nobody calls John Major "Prime Minister" any longer

If he were interviewed by an American reporter, they would almost certainly address him as "Mr Prime Minister". They tend to call people by the highest title they ever had, even years later, not just Presidents.

 

[Holadem]

Right is Chris.

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H

 

[MarkHastings]

LOL