Yeah, I think it's almost always from, but not the only..
I wouldn't mind if I saw a different to.. but that mostly appeals to me literarily, to be honest..

This is different from this. From is like a word of subtraction in this context of comparison. So, I almost get a negative connotation here. The first "this" is different in a bad way, and so, is missing a leg, from the image of this fine, full-bodied person, with two legs.

This is different compared to this -> This is different to this. (I think that's where the fault comes from - a shortened version)

On the contrary, if this is different to this, to is like a word of addition or complement in this context of comparison. So, I almost get a positive connotation here. The first "this" is different in a good way, and so, is in excess of a leg, to the image of this fine, full-bodied person, with two legs.. or, wait.. I have just made a discovery! No, three legs is truly the full-bodied person, not the image of two legs, for one leg is missing in that person!

You obviously know about adjectives like better and greater. Greater comes from great. However, there is no such thing as adjectiver or sucher.. Not every word comes with a complementary word that compares two things!

In the same way, there is no such thing as differenter. But, you can say more different. Any word that doesn't have a comparison word uses more.. and every word that does shouldn't use more. In any case, use more for different, and equate those two lexical concepts. Does anyone say This is better to this or better from this? You MUST say this is better than this.. In the same way, when you use more than, you have to use than. And so, This is different from this, but it is also more different than that..

If anything, This is better to this means, this is better to this person.. As in, this is a better interpretation to this person's eyes, perspective.

Douglas made a good point about the following depending on the context.. but he didn't clearly answer the poster's inquiry. I think he implicitly meant that, in your static context, there IS a hard rule.. but I'm making an assumption, from the best of his explanation!

Yeah.. I've never heard anyone use the word signage improperly..
My first thought was that you were misreading, as well..

But, I don't want to assume too much. The problem here is that you didn't provide anyone an example!

No, because a lot of people would agree with you.
But, no, reference is a verb, because it is giving credit to someone (or I guess something).

Referring to is rather explaining the context.
But you're right, a lot of people may be using the word improperly

Maybe because of the n and n :S

the first syllable in the word*!

elongating the word in the first* syllable!

Haha, I dunno about the filim stuff, but I def know what you mean by vee-hickle. Like, I've seen in movies actors pronouncing vehicle by elongating the word syllable, and then, of course, sounding out the h sound. But, whether I sound out the h sound, it usually is not something prominent for us. It usually comes out as vee-ickle, but once in a while with the h sound.

I have no idea what you mean by the r in veer. Ukemon, my dad used to say fil-im, as well.. but I just thought that was because he was an immigrant, lol! I can't picture the two distinctions you're trying to make for Detroit, yet, so I'll leave that be for now..

Hmm.. you STARTED saying 'pro' instead of 'pruh' or 'praw' in the US? Because I've never heard anyone not say 'pro' for produce, like fruits and vegetables, although they would not say 'pro' for everything else, like for the verb for produce, or any of the projects, process, progress, etc. words.

It seems that I have wasted, once again, so much time on the Canadian pronunciation!
It takes away from my life sometimes haha.. I get distracted, and I found myself listening to the pronunciation than the actual content of individuals, who seem to have a particularly interesting accent..

jb0284, you are right.. I found that there are so many similarities between Canadian and US pronuniciations as well as between Canadian and British!

The people who usually pronounce words like literature like the British 'lit-truh-chur' (the 'truh' sound having like 'ch' sound as in tree) would also pronounce other similar words in the British way, like military as 'mil-uh-tree'.. At least, that's how it sounds to me.. I've been playing with my own pronunciation myself.. And now, I do say it like the British way, but I did used to say it like 'mil-uh-tare-ee'

But, for some reason, I used to always say literacy like 'lit-truh-see', even though I interchanged my pronunciations of literature from the one mentioned above and 'lit-er-uh-chur' (lit having the voiced t, or, as some say, 'd' sound)

Haha, and it's funny how you spelled eh as 'ey', because that is how we pronounce it but I would never have imagined any other way to pronounce it

For Toronto, I started to get irritated a bit as I started to notice that every Canadian that is not from Toronto pronounced it more or less the way you spelt it. I dunno, it must be an actual stereotype that slowly expanding.. did you hear this thing about the Toronto pronunciation from UK or when you were here?

The reason that I got irritated was that people falsely recognised Torontonians pronouncing the name of their city a different, 'special' way (I don't even know if that sentence even made sense). It's not some different way that you pronounce it, and only the locals and Canadians should know how to pronounce it (truly, I think people watch too much sports news and copy the people on there! - because of The Leafs, or Toronto Maple Leafs). Canadians - I don't know about UKers and US Americans but - have at least two pronunciations of most words: their 'normal' pronunciation, if you will, or their enunciated pronunciation (and their normal can be the same as enunciated or it can be a mix.. or it can be anything else!).

For the city of Ottawa, I would say Ot-uh-wah (the voiced t or 'd', and perhaps the tongue to the back for the 'wah'). If I slow it down (and, especially, picturing the spelling the word in my head), I'd say 'Ot-tuh-wa'. In the same way, I would enunciate Toronto as 'Tuh-ron-toe', or 'Tur-on-toe' (I don't actually know which way I say it). This is how most teachers from JK to grade 12 would pronounce this word. But, I suppose, almost every kid pronounced it the 'fast' way - the young generation's pronunciation, almost. The type of kids who would enunciate carefully each word and not give into colloquialisms would obviously pronounce the city's name like I just described.

However, it's not only the young generation. The phenomenon of pronouncing the last syllable of the word Toronto like it is known to be pronounced is the same as the phenomenon of pronouncing the word international as 'in-ner-na-shuh-nul' as opposed to 'in-ter-na-shu-nul'.

I've looked up the term as being classified as the 'merging' of the n and t sounds. And, I've definitely noticed that the guy who plays the Scottish or Irish guy (sorry I don't even remember anymore) in Stargate Atlantis says about the closest to the way Canadians say it (I'm referring to the doctor).

I dunno, jb0284, but another thing that I've noticed in two BC friends, and got confirmed from research, is that a lot of people from there have almost forgotten how to 'raise the vowels' the Canadian raising way. Their outs and abouts sounded exactly like US Americans'. The article said that the Canadians raising accent in the population in BC is slowly disappearing, and most of it has already disappeared (I'm guessing due to American influence!).

In "normal" English, if you will, you would replace that with something else. Like, a very small percentage, or less than a percent/percentage. I say the decimal system is strictly mathematical, and you should avoid it. If not, then you ARE entering into the world of math, in which you have to start using '.' as if it was a symbol. The proper word for '.' in the decimal system is actually 'decimal', and I've heard people say that.. but never in writing. If it's a type of writing that shouldn't be having the decimal symbol, then don't use it. Convert it. And then round it if it's too ridiculous. If you can't round it and the exact number is necessary, then it's obviously not that type of writing and you can go ahead and just the symbol for decimal, '.'.

When one is writing down thoughts, your brain with its concepts and its power for syntax converts those thoughts as closely as you ordered it in your head. Then it becomes being, and then you think it's having been, because that sounds correct.

The above comments on being "direct" is definitely how you should write.

But, if you must use one of those two mentioned in your initiating question, being chosen refers to describing the headmaster (so think of it as being an adjective) and having been chosen is when you're thinking of the action of when he had actually been chosen in the past.