I choose to study geology because I am interested to study about the earth. My father is the inspiration for me to choose this course. He encourages me to get involve in this area because he as geologist has gained valuable experience and know a lot of information about this jobs. At young age, I...
No, the difference is that you cracked this monstrosity in my presence. Of course I'm gonna thwack you then. What I won't do is be dragged out of a perfectly good nap just because you happened to utter something punny.
@MrHen On some sites, they actually do something even more awesome. They don't suspend spammers, they merge them all into a single account that is suspended for all eternity.
@RegDwight Haha, nice. I feel like turning that into a children's scare story: Be good or you get merged with the spam monster and suspended for all eternity!
I am looking for a word (or two words) to describe a woman's voice that is "sexy" in a slightly deep, smooth, alluring way. The best I could come up with is mellifluous, but I'm looking for something simpler...
Yeah, Robusto's answer was posted first and is slightly better than the other answers that just suggest "sultry", but it has half the upvotes and isn't the accepted answer. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.
I flagged the newest "answer" to that question, btw.
In this sentence taken from the movie AI is 'us' the correct form of the pronoun? It certainly sounds better than if it were written with 'we' instead of 'us'. Also, I can sort of see why 'is' is used instead of 'are', and I think this is why 'us' is used rather than 'we', but would be intereste...
With the enthusiastic question of "Who wants ice-cream?"
What is the more correct negative response?
1) "Not I"
2) "Not me"
Neither response is a sentence. The first response of "not I" sounds stuffy, like it should be followed with an indignant sniff. The second sounds like American idiom ...
Upon answering the telephone, the person calling asks if Joan is available. If Joan is the person who answered the phone, should she say "This is her" or "This is she"?
@MrHen Well, in a nutshell, descriptivism is when you say that grammar follows usage, and prescriptivism is when you say that usage must always follow grammar.
So, @MrHen, for example, a prescriptivist would say "you must never end a sentence in a preposition, and never use less with countable things", and if you ask him why, he'll respond "cause I said so".
@Reg: That is not the tradition I had in mind; rather, "these and these reasons are traditionally considered important in writing, therefore x would be encouraged by traditionalists".
For "who wants ice cream", if you're gonna include the verb in your answer, then the pronoun should be nominative: "I do!" If, however, you leave off the verb, then the pronoun should default to the most natural form, i.e. "me!" Or something like that.
I still don't see why there should be more to it than the simple opposition between considering the subject complement nominative (I) and objective (me).
The "it is [x] who" construction only works in the third person. It's slightly awkward even there, but it can be used for extra emphasis on the pronoun (rather than the verb).
@MrHen Don't fall into the trap of believing that descriptivist grammar is devoid of rules for syntax and grammar. What makes it different is the rules are deduced from usage rather than decided on from someone's idea of "first principles". It's much more like hard science where rules are determined by observing nature rather than like math or philosophy, where you draw conclusions by reasoning.
I wanted to leave the question title as is so as not to take away from my amusement :).
Anyway,
It's raining.
What is raining? Is it the sky? The clouds? The weather? The rain? What is "it"? Any historical insights on the statement?
Okay, so is there still a question? Some people would say "it is they who...", others say "it is them who...". The latter will be more common as it is more informal; the former is the choice of traditionalists.
The 'it' in "It's raining" is for a verb that has no argument, whereas the 'it' in "It is he who…" is for a verb that has no subject but does have an object (or complement, if you like that terminology)
I am looking for a word (or two words) to describe a woman's voice that is "sexy" in a slightly deep, smooth, alluring way. The best I could come up with is mellifluous, but I'm looking for something simpler...
What is more correct:
It is they who lied.
or
It is them who lied.
?
Upon answering the telephone, the person calling asks if Joan is available. If Joan is the person who answered the phone, should she say "This is her" or "This is she"?
It's they.
Who lied? They did. → It is they who lied.
I wanted to leave the question title as is so as not to take away from my amusement :).
Anyway,
It's raining.
What is raining? Is it the sky? The clouds? The weather? The rain? What is "it"? Any historical insights on the statement?
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…