Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

porsche

Member Since

October 20, 2005

Total number of comments

670

Total number of votes received

3088

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Latest Comments

Resume, resumé, or résumé?

  • November 1, 2006, 2:11pm

To those who said that curriculum vitae is not used in American English:

That is not really true. Certain industries use CVs while most others do not. In particular, professionals in academia, medicine, law, and also music and art, typically would have a curriculum vitae rather than a resume.

Furthermore, at least in in American English usage, a resume and a curriculum vitae are not necessarily the same thing.

Usually, a resume is a short, recent, relevant list of accomplishments and qualifications, tailored to a particular job, or even a particular prospective employer. It is generally limited to two pages or less (some employers will intentionally discard any resumes longer than two pages without even looking at them).

By comparison, a curriculum vitae is a complete and comprehensive list of all activities encompassing one's entire professional life. It would include every job, school, award, seminar, performance, etc. and is not targeted to a particular job. It is usually much longer than a resume.

see:

http://www.acinet.org/resume/resume_cv.asp?nodeid=26

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9

Oh, and according to several dictionaries, all three spellings/accent combinations for resume are correct.
MarkB, as to leaving out the first accent because YOU (and most English speakers) pronounce the first syllable as "reh-", not "rey-" really misses the point. The FRENCH always spell it with two accents because THEY pronounce it "rey-"! It's a borrowed French word, hence the two accents in English. One of my dictionaries, the oldest, actually lists "rey-" as a proper (not preferred) pronunciation. You might find this interesting, Speedwell, the same dictionary shows accenting the last syllable instead of the first as being correct (not preferred). After all, that is how the French say it.
To Full Stop: every dictionary I checked shows the spelling with no accents as the preferred one (all others are correct though).

“I’m just saying”

  • November 1, 2006, 12:15pm

I hope I'm not misinterpreting this, but, everyone, Nancy is not asking about the general expression "I'm just saying." She's specifically asking about the use of the expression postpositively, i.e., tacked onto the end of a sentence.

Spell checkers

  • November 1, 2006, 12:10pm

David F-W, while you cannot directly edit the main dictionary, you can add custom dictionaries, and, in particular, you can add a custom "exclusion dictionary". This is a list of words that you want to force the spell checker to show as misspelled. Just type "exclusion dictionary" into MSWord's help menu for instructions.

Spell checkers

  • October 31, 2006, 10:05am

I hate to be picky, but almost every post on this page (except for maybe three of them?) has an error in grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling, etc. Some of them would have been picked up by a spell checker, others would not. Ok, I do like to be picky.

I met him drunk

  • October 20, 2006, 10:12am

John A, there's no need to defend John from me. I wasn't attacking him. I really meant what I said. Actually, he did NOT mean to say "grammar". What he said was 100% correct and proper. He certainly could have said "grammar" with similar sentiment, but the literal meaning would have been different. At first, I also jumped to the wrong conclusion that he should have used "grammar" until I researched it further. Actually, "grammaticality" is precisely the correct word, in fact, far better than "grammar" (which is less grammatical). I may have been a little jocular, but I was not being sarcastic.

Is there a grammar of spoken English?

  • October 17, 2006, 2:13pm

Raj, I'm surprised no one else has suggested this, but, depending on your free time, scheduling flexibility, and budget, I would highly recommend concentrated classes or concentrated immersion classes. In both, you go to language class for eight hours a day or more, every day. In the immersion classes, only english is spoken the entire time. After a few weeks or maybe a month, your fluency will increase quite a lot, especially if you already have some knowledge of English.
It's not for everyone as it can be very intense and requires a big time commitment. Also, you are not likely to retain what you learn unless you follow up with long-term exposure to the language. If you have recently moved to an English-speaking country, or plan on an extended trip to one for business, education, or vacation, then that would be excellent reinforcement.
I learned German this way years ago, covering two complete college semesters of German in four weeks, starting from scratch. I spoke quite well afterwards, but unfortunately, did not use it, so I lost it all after a while.

I met him drunk

  • October 16, 2006, 10:34am

Well, I'll be damned, "grammaticality" IS a word!

Word for a word with no rhyme?

  • September 27, 2006, 7:17pm

rhymeless is an adjective. It is NOT a noun that means "rhymeless word".

silent autumn

  • September 23, 2006, 5:37pm

I didn't say m and n without vowels are indistinguishable. well, actually, I guess I did, but then I took it back. I said that they are difficult to distinguish from each other. I also said that one can say mnmnmnmnmnmn and exaggerate the difference, or, just as easily, make them virtually indistinguishable. The point is, this is all relevant. All we are saying is that M and N without nearby vowels are difficult to distinguish and offering some explanation as to why, which is why one is silent in the words in question.

At first I was ready to lambaste the site moderator for editing out your coment about previewing. It sounded like an attempt to censor criticism of the site. But then I thought about it, and maybe it was edited out simply because the owner of the site took it to be a message directly to him, and off-topic. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and consider that your request was heard without it being a call to arms. Oh, and I agree, a preview page would be GREAT. I have even hit "send" accidentally before I was ready!