Help with English
- Thread starter Saint
- Start date
Either.
Oxford spelling is not the standard spelling in England, and is mostly used these days in scientific circles and academia.
English is a widely used language and has many influences pulling it in separate directions. Spelling variations arise, each of which can gain popularity in different geographies. There are those who want to stick to the more classical variants, and others who prefer to ignore etymology and go with what is simpler to understand, and others might opt for the more phonetic approach.
And it's "Why do we not stick to one standard?"
And it's "Why do we not stick to one standard?"
And it's "Why do we not stick to one standard?"
[/QUOTE]As I pointed out in my last post
http://www.sciforums.com/threads/help-with-english.109499/page-146#post-3441976
Yes, people will understand you (which is evident in that we answered your query
), but it is not correct English grammar, and it is not how native English speakers would say it.To have your "knives out" means that you are ready to attack it, criticise it, cut it to pieces, destroy it, be unpleasant about it etc.
The dark web is a section of the World Wide Web that requires special software to access, where anonymity is paramount, where things can be discussed, bought and sold, mostly without fear of being snooped on by governments and law enforcement. It is therefore rife with illegal activity, and popular with criminals, terrorists and the like.
Presumably the "dark" is because it is effectively hidden from view.
i used to think this came from "this for that" (as in: you give me this, I give you that) but is actually from "tip for tap" meaning an exchange of blows. In your example, not sending a card was the retaliatory action for forgetting her birthday.
It is basically a case of you hit someone, they hit you back; you get hit, you hit back, with the implication that the exchanges are of roughly equal magnitude.
"Organize" is probably more common in the United States, whereas I'd venture that "organise" wins out in Great Britain and Australia (and I don't know about other places).
In Australia, though, "organize" fights it out with "organise" - people use one or the other and most of them probably don't think much about it. My impression is that scholarly publications tend to go more for "organise" in Australia.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Since you don't live in the U.K., Australia, India or any other country where British English is spoken, rather than American English, I would strongly advise you to adopt American English. This includes our spelling ("criticize," not "criticise"), our vocabulary ("go to the bathroom," not "the loo"), and our grammar.
Most of the material written in English is written in American English. Most of the movies, TV shows, books and other material is produced in American English. And of course most English-language music is sung in American English.
If you learn to speak, write and read in American English, you'll be able to communicate with hundreds of millions of people. And don't worry, ever since the advent of television, around 1950, the British people have learned to understand American English too.
We Americans didn't learn to understand British English until the Beatles and the Rolling Stones started singing, around 1960. James Bond helped a lot too.
Proceed no further 
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
- My mother's parents were Czech--or "Bohemian" as they were called in those days.
- My father's paternal grandparents abandoned Germany and their Jewish heritage, hopped on a ship and landed on Ellis Island. They began to speak English only and joined a Christian church.
- His mother actually was of British ancestry, so I've got a bit of it.
Yes.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
No. It means that a large amount of something (even people) is moving (or being moved), all together, in one direction, in order to permit something necessary or important to happen.
"All the employees who work on the second floor will have to move en masse to the lobby, because the electricity has failed on the second floor."
Yes, although English "mass" is identical to French masse.
As I've explained before, the French ruled England for several centuries, making French the official language of government, commerce, culture and education, while the common folk continued to speak Saxon (or "Anglo-Saxon" as it's usually named--the Angles and the Saxons were two of the largest tribes who crossed the English Channel to take over the land of the original Celtic Britons). Eventually Anglo-Saxon came back as the national language, but it had absorbed so many French words that we began to call it "English" instead of "Saxon."