There is a series of articles on past and present Canadian electoral districts. Where a district no longer exists because of redistribution, which is correct:
I believe that the past nature of the district is captured in "former", and that adding the past tense to the sentence is either redundant, or "undoes" the past nature. Another editor suggests that using the present tense makes it inconsistent with the following sentence that describes where the district "was located" (i.e., it uses the simple past tense). Assistance would be appreciated. Ground Zero 14:10, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
I have a question about subject verb agreement. Does the following sentence violate subject verb agreement, or is it proper as it is written.
My thoughts for the song being as it is are that a lineman works hard and is tired.
Thanks to everyone who offered help. The sentence made more sense in the context in which it was written (as a rebuttal). However,I agree that it is elliptical in its phrasing.
Thanks, Jason
Is there any documented Wikipedia policy on the use of "they" as a singular pronoun, or on the use of "he" versus "he or she"? In other words, of these three phrasings:
I have my own preference for which I believe is correct, so I'm not looking for opinions on that - I just want to know, what can I point to which authoritatively says which of these is preferred in Wikipedia articles? - Brian Kendig 17:55, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
This is an area where there is some difference between varieties of English. In the UK, singular "they" is fine even in formal contexts, and so your sentence 2 would be fine, though I think "someone" would be better than "a person". However, in the US singular "they" is still frowned on in formal writing. Since Wikipedia is writing for an international audience, we must respect the more conservative varieties of English. In this case, none of your three phrasings will do; the sentence must be rephrased along the lines suggested above. Gdr 12:46:58, 2005-08-26 (UTC)
I'm in the middle of writing a formal paper. Which is correct?
Thanks!
If I said that 'the exploratory scope of senators is small, which allows it to find potential solutions,' it would make little sense, because where 'it' is should refer to the object. The workload of senators is not what is allowed to find solutions! It is the senators, the object of the sentence, who are allowed to find solutions because of their weak exploratory scope. The object, the group of senators, is plural.
I do not see why it should change back to single when a simple plural word is used. To me, since the tribe is not composed of one thing, but of many people, with some degree of free will, it is wrong to refer to them as it. This exploratory scope benefits every person in the tribe. (Nota bene: I do not suggest that this is the only right answer. These are just my deliberations, from a British standpoint.) IINAG 20:40, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
Hi ; I live in alberta. A native elder has told me that I will be having a ceromony were I will recieve two eagle feathers that are to be placed on the right side of my head.. Could you explain the importance and the meaning of this ceromny please. the other question I have : is she used the word " hecetu" I have tried searching the internet for the word but have come up unsuccessful so far.. if you could help I would greatly appreacite it ..
many thank yous to you and your tribe.
can saying that dodger(the baseball team) fans are only white trash and mexicans as ethnocentric make sense grammatically? If so please explain why and if not please do the same. I believe that you are talking about a group of people so it is ok to use that word. My buddy, tells me it is out of context. PLEASE HELP ME RESOLVE THIS ISSUE! I can be emailed at jewmoshe@yahoo.com. Please let me know what the answer is Thankyou very much.
This topic has been nagging me for months. I want to write a Wikipedia article about it, but I don't know what it is called, so I can't even begin researching.
Consider the sentence:
This can be (and usually is) shortened to:
What is this shortening process called? I know that it also exists in German, and probably many other languages. This can relate nominative to accusitive as above. But also nominitive to dative (a bit confusing):
But not accusitive to dative, as no verb is removed. Prepositions may be removed as well:
In the opposite case, nouns may be related to prepositions by removing verbs and other nouns:
The combinations become limitless. Thanks ⇝ Casito⇝ Talk 05:21, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
This kind of thing can create technically correct but quite complex sentances, use with care. An extreme example (from Flanders & Swan's Have some Maderia, m'Dear) is "She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes, and his hopes". DES (talk) 23:55, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
The circa page says it means "about" and is used for dates. Can we use it for other things? Example:
What do you think? (BTW, I know this isn't exactly a grammar question, but this page seemed the best place to ask.) — Nowhither 11:31, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
1,000,000 --> 1 million 25,300,000 --> 25.3 million 1,000,000,000 --> 1 billion
I know I should not be a prescriptivist, but for me, this strikes close to home. I believe that to write out large numbers in figures would both be clearer and would encourage numeracy (that is, it would encourage people to become more skilled at handling numbers). When I played pinball regularly, I became accustomed to seeing large numbers written out in figures and rarely if ever made order-of-magnitude errors in dealing with them.
Hi i need to know how to spell/write "From Heaven" (as in I'm from heaven) from english to lithuanian. If you could please e-mail me back on kellyjuch@hotmail.com that would be great. Thank you for your time. --Kelly.
The most common phrase in Lithuanian is "Iš dangaus", Another phrase "Iš Rojaus" also may be used, when one speaks about the Heaven, meaning the Paradise. These phrases are pronounced this way: approximately using English writing, it will sound "Ish dun 'goes", "Ish 'row yoes", the Lithuanian pronouncing (In the
simplified Lithuanian transcription , which is based mostly on
Latin prononuncing of letters) is [iʃ dangaus], [iʃ rōjaus]. - And, sorry, may I know, why do You need it?
Linas Lituanus 08:01, August 27, 2005 (UTC)
I feel that there is an error in "Specificity" term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specificity
You write that: "For a test to determine who has a certain disease, a specificity of 100% means that all people labeled as sick are actually sick."
But I feel that "For a test to determine who has a certain disease, a specificity of 100% means that all people labeled as NOT sick are actually NOT sick."
Can someone translate this for me; I have my own translation but I want to compare it to someone else's (it is a bit tricky):
-- Neutrality talk 00:28, August 24, 2005 (UTC)
In all, I got the same as Shantavira, although it sounds slightly clunky. Also, I would translate habitación as 'room', not 'home.' Whence comes this passage, by the way? IINAG 11:42, August 26, 2005 (UTC)
What is the source of your text, just out of curiosity? -- Dpr 07:26, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
What is the longest word in English such that all its letters are in alphabetical order? -- Anthonymorris 10:06, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
Further question: What is the shortest phrase or sentence in the English language that includes all the 26 letters in alphabetical order, with possible other letters between them? — JIP | Talk 07:41, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
Not quite what you're after, but [3] has "some exceptional panalphabetic word lists with letters in alphabetical order". Gdr 12:24:29, 2005-08-25 (UTC)
See also pangram. Shantavira 17:28, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
I wish to check advice given to me re the use of the word "Chairman". I'm advised the "man" comes from the Latin "man" (pronounced marn) meaning "to lead or direct". This thereby debunks the use of Chairperson or Chairwoman. If not then to be politically correct we should also say "persondate" for mandate; "personager" for manager etc. Would appreciate your thoughts on this.
A chairman, like a spokesman, can be female or male. If you're really concerned (and I see no reason to be), use "convenor" as they do in Scotland, jguk 07:42, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
The original poster is making two mistakes. First, the etymological fallacy, the belief that the historical origins of a word tells you what it means now. And second, the belief that back-formation is somehow an illegitimate means of making new words (no-one eschews the word "cherry" on the grounds that it results from the mis-analysis of French cherise as a plural). Gdr 12:44:48, 2005-08-25 (UTC)
Sir/Madam:
On your "JSS Gallery Frontpage", above the photo of the library, below it (Jpg: memory.loc.gov), and, of course, on the running heads, "Windener" should be "Widener" (only one "n" in Widener).
Also, on the page with the drawing of the three sections of the library, footnote 1, penultimate line: 'Quoate' should read 'Quote', unless 'quoate' is a new word I have yet to come across. I have not read the entire article but perhaps someone should, just to check for such embarrassing typos.
In addition, I have read that the father of Harry Elkins Widener died on the Titanic along with his son. So how could his "parents" build the new library in his memory? Was there a stepfather?! If so, that fact should have been noted.
Harvard--Shame on you!!!
Betty Goldman Cambridge chbettygoldman at yahoo.com
P.S. Sorry if this is not the correct page to place a correction but I could not find anywhere else to type it. I hope that you will see that it gets to the right source. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.21.185.2 ( talk • contribs) 19:35, 25 August 2005
What is this kind of grammatical construction called where, by accident or for humorous effect, the normal reading of a phrase (perhaps due to abuse of pronouns) attaches the verb to the wrong object? I thought maybe it was a zeugma, but that doesn't seem to quite fit. Notinasnaid 09:37, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
How do you say "it could be" in Klingon? For example "you could be an officer"? "You are an officer" is yaS SoH, and "you can be an officer" is, I think, yaS SoHlaH, but how would I write it in the conditional? DuH is apparently a verb meaning "to be possible", but how is it used with a sentence as the subject? For example, is "it is possible that you are an officer" yaS SoH 'e' DuH? — JIP | Talk 11:48, 27 August 2005 (UTC)
Which slavic languages use the letter Č? -- HappyCamper 03:20, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
I was watching a commercial for a pay-per-view type channel, and I was wondering which type of logical fallacy would this be:
"You could drive to the video store in bad weather, stand in line for hours, just to find out that the movie you want is currently out of stock... or you could tune to channel..."
I think the commercial implies that because this COULD happen (though I imagine the chances aren't as high as they seem, the weather, the lines, and the movie being out of stock) it WILL happen. Anyone know which type this would fall under? -- Scapegoat pariah 05:36, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
Murphy's law? Murphy's Law- JA
TALAH : Is a named used among people, in arabic it is spilled تالا but I wonder what does it mean please if any one can give a clue I'll be greatfull thank you.
Near my home in England there is a an enclosed field, commonly used as pasture by sheep and cattle. It is crossed by a public right of way via a gate which carries the warning. Beware of deep silts. Can anyone enlighten me as to what this means. There is no evidence of sandy deposits anywhere. --anon
I'm not sure if Catch 22 is the correct term to use here but I was wondering if there is an actual word or term that describes a question that makes itself redundant, for example "Can I start with a question?"... Because it IS a question the speaker has already started with a question making the question ironic or redundant. A redundant, ironic, catch 22 or rhetorical question is the closest words I can come to describe it but is there a word that sums it all up. I Appreciate any feedback, thanks - Dean
I am trying to find literature about the Philippines in Latin. I am not sure how to translate place names like Luzon(Luconia), Visaya, Mindanao, etc. I've searched through gutenberg.org and I've seen the maps about the Philippines. If there are any links that can be found, please let me know.-- Jondel 06:07, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
I just came across the page on Regina—Wascana (a Canadian electoral district). I thought, "That's a silly place to put an em-dash." So I moved the page to Regina-Wascana, using a hyphen, which I figured was the proper punctuation. But as I was working on changing the pages that linked there, I came across a list of Canadian electoral districts. It turns out that there are lots and lots of them on pages named using em-dashes: Regina—Lumsden, Prince Albert—Churchill River, Selkirk—Red River, Portage—Interlake, Lisgar—Marquette, Windsor—St. Clair, Wellington—Grey, and the list goes on and on and on ... at least 50 of them, and probably more. So I'm wondering if I did the right thing. I did some Google searching, and I could not find any usages of the em-dash in this context, which of course is highly suggestive. So, am I wrong? Or, if I'm right, does anyone want to help me fix all these (and the links pointing to them)? — Nowhither 09:12, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
The reason is that emdash is what Elections Canada uses, and they have a good reason for it. In French, the various parts of a multiple-word geographic name are hyphenated with an endash. When Elections Canada joins two or more multiple-word geographic names, they are then joined with emdashes. So you might have a neighbourhood in Montreatl called St-Laurent (the saint is "St. Laurent", the neighbourhood is "St-Laurent") that is joined in an electoral district with a town called Westmount. The result is an electoral district called Saint-Henri—Westmount. Here are some more examples: Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok, Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Temiscouata—Les-Basques, Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis. Ground Zero | t 13:42, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
In the byte article, the line that comes closest to answering this questions is : "The word was coined by mutating the word bite so it would not be accidentally misspelled as bit." Now whats the relation between the word "bite" and the concept of the byte ? How did 'bite' come up in the first place ? And why would someone mis-pronounce 'bite' as 'bit' ? Jay 18:36, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
Do you know what the Tattoo on Angelina Jolie's left shoulder blade says?
Inspired by todays FA, Iron Maiden, I'm interested in the different UK & US grammar usage. I've found before that the US tends to treat bands as singular items: "Iron Maiden is a band..." whereas in the UK I would usually say "Iron Maiden are a band...". Firstly I was wondering which of these is 'more grammatically correct' (I seem to recall reading somewhere that "Iron Maiden is..." is better) and secondly, does the US style extend to 'plural' band names? Going on wikipedia articles, I find "The Scissor Sisters is..." but " The White Stripes are...", " The Beatles were..." and " The Hives are" (although the last two may be because they're non-US bands). -- Tdrawler 07:58, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
Where can I find a list of the 200 or 300 or so most popular nouns, adjectives and verbs in English? — JIP | Talk 09:17, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
You know when people ask you to an impression of a horse walking, and you make a "clip clop" sound with the tongue. Well, how do u write that sound in IPA? It's for a weird short novel that I'm writing - and this in needed in a scene, without it the scene would be a lot less funny. -- Wonderfool t (c) 00:05, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
There is a series of articles on past and present Canadian electoral districts. Where a district no longer exists because of redistribution, which is correct:
I believe that the past nature of the district is captured in "former", and that adding the past tense to the sentence is either redundant, or "undoes" the past nature. Another editor suggests that using the present tense makes it inconsistent with the following sentence that describes where the district "was located" (i.e., it uses the simple past tense). Assistance would be appreciated. Ground Zero 14:10, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
I have a question about subject verb agreement. Does the following sentence violate subject verb agreement, or is it proper as it is written.
My thoughts for the song being as it is are that a lineman works hard and is tired.
Thanks to everyone who offered help. The sentence made more sense in the context in which it was written (as a rebuttal). However,I agree that it is elliptical in its phrasing.
Thanks, Jason
Is there any documented Wikipedia policy on the use of "they" as a singular pronoun, or on the use of "he" versus "he or she"? In other words, of these three phrasings:
I have my own preference for which I believe is correct, so I'm not looking for opinions on that - I just want to know, what can I point to which authoritatively says which of these is preferred in Wikipedia articles? - Brian Kendig 17:55, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
This is an area where there is some difference between varieties of English. In the UK, singular "they" is fine even in formal contexts, and so your sentence 2 would be fine, though I think "someone" would be better than "a person". However, in the US singular "they" is still frowned on in formal writing. Since Wikipedia is writing for an international audience, we must respect the more conservative varieties of English. In this case, none of your three phrasings will do; the sentence must be rephrased along the lines suggested above. Gdr 12:46:58, 2005-08-26 (UTC)
I'm in the middle of writing a formal paper. Which is correct?
Thanks!
If I said that 'the exploratory scope of senators is small, which allows it to find potential solutions,' it would make little sense, because where 'it' is should refer to the object. The workload of senators is not what is allowed to find solutions! It is the senators, the object of the sentence, who are allowed to find solutions because of their weak exploratory scope. The object, the group of senators, is plural.
I do not see why it should change back to single when a simple plural word is used. To me, since the tribe is not composed of one thing, but of many people, with some degree of free will, it is wrong to refer to them as it. This exploratory scope benefits every person in the tribe. (Nota bene: I do not suggest that this is the only right answer. These are just my deliberations, from a British standpoint.) IINAG 20:40, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
Hi ; I live in alberta. A native elder has told me that I will be having a ceromony were I will recieve two eagle feathers that are to be placed on the right side of my head.. Could you explain the importance and the meaning of this ceromny please. the other question I have : is she used the word " hecetu" I have tried searching the internet for the word but have come up unsuccessful so far.. if you could help I would greatly appreacite it ..
many thank yous to you and your tribe.
can saying that dodger(the baseball team) fans are only white trash and mexicans as ethnocentric make sense grammatically? If so please explain why and if not please do the same. I believe that you are talking about a group of people so it is ok to use that word. My buddy, tells me it is out of context. PLEASE HELP ME RESOLVE THIS ISSUE! I can be emailed at jewmoshe@yahoo.com. Please let me know what the answer is Thankyou very much.
This topic has been nagging me for months. I want to write a Wikipedia article about it, but I don't know what it is called, so I can't even begin researching.
Consider the sentence:
This can be (and usually is) shortened to:
What is this shortening process called? I know that it also exists in German, and probably many other languages. This can relate nominative to accusitive as above. But also nominitive to dative (a bit confusing):
But not accusitive to dative, as no verb is removed. Prepositions may be removed as well:
In the opposite case, nouns may be related to prepositions by removing verbs and other nouns:
The combinations become limitless. Thanks ⇝ Casito⇝ Talk 05:21, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
This kind of thing can create technically correct but quite complex sentances, use with care. An extreme example (from Flanders & Swan's Have some Maderia, m'Dear) is "She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes, and his hopes". DES (talk) 23:55, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
The circa page says it means "about" and is used for dates. Can we use it for other things? Example:
What do you think? (BTW, I know this isn't exactly a grammar question, but this page seemed the best place to ask.) — Nowhither 11:31, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
1,000,000 --> 1 million 25,300,000 --> 25.3 million 1,000,000,000 --> 1 billion
I know I should not be a prescriptivist, but for me, this strikes close to home. I believe that to write out large numbers in figures would both be clearer and would encourage numeracy (that is, it would encourage people to become more skilled at handling numbers). When I played pinball regularly, I became accustomed to seeing large numbers written out in figures and rarely if ever made order-of-magnitude errors in dealing with them.
Hi i need to know how to spell/write "From Heaven" (as in I'm from heaven) from english to lithuanian. If you could please e-mail me back on kellyjuch@hotmail.com that would be great. Thank you for your time. --Kelly.
The most common phrase in Lithuanian is "Iš dangaus", Another phrase "Iš Rojaus" also may be used, when one speaks about the Heaven, meaning the Paradise. These phrases are pronounced this way: approximately using English writing, it will sound "Ish dun 'goes", "Ish 'row yoes", the Lithuanian pronouncing (In the
simplified Lithuanian transcription , which is based mostly on
Latin prononuncing of letters) is [iʃ dangaus], [iʃ rōjaus]. - And, sorry, may I know, why do You need it?
Linas Lituanus 08:01, August 27, 2005 (UTC)
I feel that there is an error in "Specificity" term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specificity
You write that: "For a test to determine who has a certain disease, a specificity of 100% means that all people labeled as sick are actually sick."
But I feel that "For a test to determine who has a certain disease, a specificity of 100% means that all people labeled as NOT sick are actually NOT sick."
Can someone translate this for me; I have my own translation but I want to compare it to someone else's (it is a bit tricky):
-- Neutrality talk 00:28, August 24, 2005 (UTC)
In all, I got the same as Shantavira, although it sounds slightly clunky. Also, I would translate habitación as 'room', not 'home.' Whence comes this passage, by the way? IINAG 11:42, August 26, 2005 (UTC)
What is the source of your text, just out of curiosity? -- Dpr 07:26, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
What is the longest word in English such that all its letters are in alphabetical order? -- Anthonymorris 10:06, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
Further question: What is the shortest phrase or sentence in the English language that includes all the 26 letters in alphabetical order, with possible other letters between them? — JIP | Talk 07:41, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
Not quite what you're after, but [3] has "some exceptional panalphabetic word lists with letters in alphabetical order". Gdr 12:24:29, 2005-08-25 (UTC)
See also pangram. Shantavira 17:28, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
I wish to check advice given to me re the use of the word "Chairman". I'm advised the "man" comes from the Latin "man" (pronounced marn) meaning "to lead or direct". This thereby debunks the use of Chairperson or Chairwoman. If not then to be politically correct we should also say "persondate" for mandate; "personager" for manager etc. Would appreciate your thoughts on this.
A chairman, like a spokesman, can be female or male. If you're really concerned (and I see no reason to be), use "convenor" as they do in Scotland, jguk 07:42, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
The original poster is making two mistakes. First, the etymological fallacy, the belief that the historical origins of a word tells you what it means now. And second, the belief that back-formation is somehow an illegitimate means of making new words (no-one eschews the word "cherry" on the grounds that it results from the mis-analysis of French cherise as a plural). Gdr 12:44:48, 2005-08-25 (UTC)
Sir/Madam:
On your "JSS Gallery Frontpage", above the photo of the library, below it (Jpg: memory.loc.gov), and, of course, on the running heads, "Windener" should be "Widener" (only one "n" in Widener).
Also, on the page with the drawing of the three sections of the library, footnote 1, penultimate line: 'Quoate' should read 'Quote', unless 'quoate' is a new word I have yet to come across. I have not read the entire article but perhaps someone should, just to check for such embarrassing typos.
In addition, I have read that the father of Harry Elkins Widener died on the Titanic along with his son. So how could his "parents" build the new library in his memory? Was there a stepfather?! If so, that fact should have been noted.
Harvard--Shame on you!!!
Betty Goldman Cambridge chbettygoldman at yahoo.com
P.S. Sorry if this is not the correct page to place a correction but I could not find anywhere else to type it. I hope that you will see that it gets to the right source. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.21.185.2 ( talk • contribs) 19:35, 25 August 2005
What is this kind of grammatical construction called where, by accident or for humorous effect, the normal reading of a phrase (perhaps due to abuse of pronouns) attaches the verb to the wrong object? I thought maybe it was a zeugma, but that doesn't seem to quite fit. Notinasnaid 09:37, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
How do you say "it could be" in Klingon? For example "you could be an officer"? "You are an officer" is yaS SoH, and "you can be an officer" is, I think, yaS SoHlaH, but how would I write it in the conditional? DuH is apparently a verb meaning "to be possible", but how is it used with a sentence as the subject? For example, is "it is possible that you are an officer" yaS SoH 'e' DuH? — JIP | Talk 11:48, 27 August 2005 (UTC)
Which slavic languages use the letter Č? -- HappyCamper 03:20, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
I was watching a commercial for a pay-per-view type channel, and I was wondering which type of logical fallacy would this be:
"You could drive to the video store in bad weather, stand in line for hours, just to find out that the movie you want is currently out of stock... or you could tune to channel..."
I think the commercial implies that because this COULD happen (though I imagine the chances aren't as high as they seem, the weather, the lines, and the movie being out of stock) it WILL happen. Anyone know which type this would fall under? -- Scapegoat pariah 05:36, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
Murphy's law? Murphy's Law- JA
TALAH : Is a named used among people, in arabic it is spilled تالا but I wonder what does it mean please if any one can give a clue I'll be greatfull thank you.
Near my home in England there is a an enclosed field, commonly used as pasture by sheep and cattle. It is crossed by a public right of way via a gate which carries the warning. Beware of deep silts. Can anyone enlighten me as to what this means. There is no evidence of sandy deposits anywhere. --anon
I'm not sure if Catch 22 is the correct term to use here but I was wondering if there is an actual word or term that describes a question that makes itself redundant, for example "Can I start with a question?"... Because it IS a question the speaker has already started with a question making the question ironic or redundant. A redundant, ironic, catch 22 or rhetorical question is the closest words I can come to describe it but is there a word that sums it all up. I Appreciate any feedback, thanks - Dean
I am trying to find literature about the Philippines in Latin. I am not sure how to translate place names like Luzon(Luconia), Visaya, Mindanao, etc. I've searched through gutenberg.org and I've seen the maps about the Philippines. If there are any links that can be found, please let me know.-- Jondel 06:07, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
I just came across the page on Regina—Wascana (a Canadian electoral district). I thought, "That's a silly place to put an em-dash." So I moved the page to Regina-Wascana, using a hyphen, which I figured was the proper punctuation. But as I was working on changing the pages that linked there, I came across a list of Canadian electoral districts. It turns out that there are lots and lots of them on pages named using em-dashes: Regina—Lumsden, Prince Albert—Churchill River, Selkirk—Red River, Portage—Interlake, Lisgar—Marquette, Windsor—St. Clair, Wellington—Grey, and the list goes on and on and on ... at least 50 of them, and probably more. So I'm wondering if I did the right thing. I did some Google searching, and I could not find any usages of the em-dash in this context, which of course is highly suggestive. So, am I wrong? Or, if I'm right, does anyone want to help me fix all these (and the links pointing to them)? — Nowhither 09:12, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
The reason is that emdash is what Elections Canada uses, and they have a good reason for it. In French, the various parts of a multiple-word geographic name are hyphenated with an endash. When Elections Canada joins two or more multiple-word geographic names, they are then joined with emdashes. So you might have a neighbourhood in Montreatl called St-Laurent (the saint is "St. Laurent", the neighbourhood is "St-Laurent") that is joined in an electoral district with a town called Westmount. The result is an electoral district called Saint-Henri—Westmount. Here are some more examples: Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok, Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Temiscouata—Les-Basques, Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis. Ground Zero | t 13:42, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
In the byte article, the line that comes closest to answering this questions is : "The word was coined by mutating the word bite so it would not be accidentally misspelled as bit." Now whats the relation between the word "bite" and the concept of the byte ? How did 'bite' come up in the first place ? And why would someone mis-pronounce 'bite' as 'bit' ? Jay 18:36, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
Do you know what the Tattoo on Angelina Jolie's left shoulder blade says?
Inspired by todays FA, Iron Maiden, I'm interested in the different UK & US grammar usage. I've found before that the US tends to treat bands as singular items: "Iron Maiden is a band..." whereas in the UK I would usually say "Iron Maiden are a band...". Firstly I was wondering which of these is 'more grammatically correct' (I seem to recall reading somewhere that "Iron Maiden is..." is better) and secondly, does the US style extend to 'plural' band names? Going on wikipedia articles, I find "The Scissor Sisters is..." but " The White Stripes are...", " The Beatles were..." and " The Hives are" (although the last two may be because they're non-US bands). -- Tdrawler 07:58, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
Where can I find a list of the 200 or 300 or so most popular nouns, adjectives and verbs in English? — JIP | Talk 09:17, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
You know when people ask you to an impression of a horse walking, and you make a "clip clop" sound with the tongue. Well, how do u write that sound in IPA? It's for a weird short novel that I'm writing - and this in needed in a scene, without it the scene would be a lot less funny. -- Wonderfool t (c) 00:05, 22 August 2005 (UTC)