Messages

1

Use and Misuse / Re: What is the difference between 'in spite of' and 'despite of'?

« on: March 27, 2010, 09:18:21 AM »

Hello Sir,

Please be kind enough to explain the difference between  in spite of and despite of? When is it appropriate to use  or not to use it in a sentence.

No such expression as "despite of" -- it's only "despite".

2

Language Humor at its Finest / Re: Wordplay

« on: March 20, 2010, 06:40:48 PM »

I hate to ruin a joke, but the expression is "Vive La France" so "Visa La France" requires changing two letters.

<ilag>

3

My Media English Watch / Re: When a newspaper’s English falls below par in education and culture reporting

« on: March 20, 2010, 05:54:01 PM »

(2) Philippine Star: Convoluted sentence, wrong choice of verb (Internet edition)

Masteral degree in sight for Smart mentors

MANILA, Philippines - Twelve public high school teachers recently defended their thesis as
...

You missed something, sir; 'thesis' is a singular noun and there are 12 public high school teachers. I seriously doubt if all 12 of them collaborated on a single thesis, so they recently defended their theses.

4

Use and Misuse / Re: Where do we find Technical Editing Software?

« on: November 24, 2009, 05:19:46 PM »

I'm not sure technical editing software would help. If I were in your place, madgirl, I would simply ask the doctors what they meant to say, in terms as simple as possible. Meaning, no medical jargon. Now that may be oversimplifying, since I can't seem to grok the nature of your editing, but that may be a start

5

Use and Misuse / Re: Where do we find Technical Editing Softwares?

« on: November 24, 2009, 05:15:51 PM »

Hello, Silverlokk,
Yes, it should have been "software"...but you know, it happens to all of us when we're rushing with our fingers and hit the wrong key(s) and we sometimes forget to look at it again. Another case of oversight. We can also include equipment, and I've seen many who add an "s" when this is really both singular and plural in usage. There's also "staffs", "personnels", "crews", "stuffs". Indeed, this must be pointed out too that these words are used incorrectly by many English "writers". You think we should collar them all? Best to find out from the Professor himself. Cheers!

On other online forums, I wouldn't bother -- it would take up too much of my time    However, this site, being about English grammar, does bring out the grammar Nazi in me I believe I do have the cred, being former associate, then technical, editor of PC World Philippines.

6

Use and Misuse / Re: Where do we find Technical Editing Softwares?

« on: November 17, 2009, 09:48:16 PM »

And when we mean "software" to be singular, we don't say "Buy me a software from the computer shop"; we say "Buy me software from the computer shop" instead--without the determiner "a."

To pursue this further: If I say "Buy me software," I might mean that I'm asking for two or pieces of software -- or, to be more precise, two or more software packages or software applications. If I want only one, I should say "Buy me a software application" or "Buy me a software package."

7

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / A few common mispronunciations

« on: November 14, 2009, 03:45:50 PM »

• covet -- accent is on the first syllable
• govern -- accent also on the first syllable
• precedent -- almost sounds like president, not precede-ent

Doubters, check the dictionary 

Any others?

8

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Why not “soil” or “land” for “area of responsibility”?

« on: November 14, 2009, 03:36:28 PM »

We can just say that the typhoon has entered the Philippines.

But then, we wouldn't have anyone to beat up on when the typhoon does hit us. On a more serious note, that's what 'area of responsibility' means -- the authorities are responsible for the well-being of persons and property within that area. Without the concept of an area of responsibility, nobody is responsible for any destruction or loss of lives that a typhoon brings. What would all our grandstanding politicians and armchair analysts do to relieve their boredom?

9

Use and Misuse / Re: 'software' is already plural

« on: November 14, 2009, 03:28:24 PM »

Pardon the correction, but there's no such word as 'softwares' because software is already plural, in the same way that 'equipment', 'furniture', and 'stuff', to name a few, are mass nouns.

10

Your Thoughts Exactly / Re: ENGLISH PROFICIENCY: HOW MUCH OF A PROBLEM IS IT?

« on: October 03, 2009, 08:02:19 PM »

The last thing we want to see are kids who are not fluent in either Filipino or English.

Unfortunately, we already have that.

11

Tech Support / Re: Section Information

« on: May 12, 2009, 01:30:37 AM »

I have a list lying around (not laying around) somewheres (colloquial ) that suggests how to compose help messages more meaningful than "It doesn't work." I'll hunt it down but in the meantime, I suggest that you give more details when asking for help. Like, "The 'bold' icon doesn't work. When I click on it, the text stays normal. I'm using IE 7 on Windows Vista Home Basic, generic computer with a 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM." etc...

12

Getting to Know English / Re: Simply to Get the Ball Rolling

« on: May 12, 2009, 01:24:45 AM »

Regarding "in regard to" and "as regards" (now that sounds meta-  ) -- I would rewrite my sentence to avoid them because they sound, as you said, stand-offish. Thus instead of As regards your project proposal, I regret to inform you that the board decided it wasn't feasible., I'd write Unfortunately, the board decided that your project wasn't feasible. I'd have to find a really good reason to use "as regards" or its kin.