Discussion Forum
This is a forum to discuss the gray areas of the English language for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries or other reference books.
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Does anybody possibly know what Gimp means? I’m talking about the creature in Pulp Fiction at the Mason-Dixie Pawshop, The wo/man dressed in black leather bondage gear. S/he’s called Gimp. Remember? Is it a nick name or what?
I’ve been always wondering how I must pronounce: months, mouths etc. How the S after TH sounds? Z or S or what?
Over the years, I have seen the words “coup de’grace” and “et all.” One day fine day, I decided to look them up and see how they were to be correctly used; unfortunately, I could not find either of them! Perhaps I am spelling them wrong? (Which could very well be the case with “coup de’grace, but I am certain that is how I say “et all” spelt.)
Can someone please tune me in on if these are even words and if so the correct way of spelling and using them?
I tend to use the posessive S when you would actually bother to sound out the extra letter. In my head I hear the posessive “Jones’s” as “Jons-zz”
I also had a cat named Socks. If his name were to be made posessive, I wouldn’t put the extra S sound, so it’d just be “Socks’ ”
This is a little punctuation quirk I’ve picked up over the years. I doubt I’m correct. What’s the proper rule on this?
I’ve always wondered about the difference between “writer or author” - I heard someone (not a native speaker either) say “I want to be an author.” Wouldn’t it be more natural to say she wants to be a writer, since she’s (attempting to) write a novel? What if she was compiling a cook book? would that be an author or a writer?
What’s the difference between gerund and present participle?
When referring to a group of people, as being released in a contract, should it read “Releases” or “Releasees”? My dictionary lists releasee as singular but gives no plural spelling. Having looked under “Releases,” in the dictionary, it does not list it as a plural of “Releasee.” Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My co-worker and I are having a fight over the correct end punctuation for items in a bulleted or numbered list. An example of this type of list could be a set of instructions for filling out an expense report form:
- Employee’s full name - Amount - If you entertained a client for the Davis deal, write client’s name and company next to the amount. - Job code (if applicable) - If you have no code assigned to your job, write PENDING in the space.
She says you must always use a period after each item, regardless of length. I say you must use a period only if the item is a complete sentence, and that if some of the items are sentences and some are not, the entire list must be rewritten to make it consistent. Yet another co-worker holds that you must never use a period after list items. We can’t all be correct (and maybe none of us are!).
Why is, in some of the English texts of the last century, the word, PEOPLE capitalized and written as PEOPLES? Just wonder when it became a single word without a plural form? I mean we write: “People are stupid.” But you can’t say today: “PeopleS are nice.” Right? Any idea?
This issue is killing me. I know that when writing dialogue, double quotation marks are used, as in,
“The road is icy and wet,” he said.
However, when putting quotation marks around a single word or phrase intra-sentence, what is the correct procedure? Especially if the usage is referring to some sentiment of sarcasm or a sort of contempt. I know that if it is a direct quotation from a person or book, magazine, etc., double quotes are used.
Should it be:
For ‘security’ reasons I was not allowed to bring my cell phone into the concert hall.
OR
“security”
I mean, I suppose this is a direct quotation of the person who said it was for security, but in that case, when are single quotation marks used?!
