Author Topic: Dear Expert (Read 165482 times)

Porter · « **Reply #300 on:** October 29, 2011, 07:19:46 PM »

As opposed to "Any special projects programs or services..."?

Definitely comma.

Jonathon · « **Reply #301 on:** October 29, 2011, 07:33:07 PM »

I assume you're asking about the comma before "or"? I prefer it.

As do all right-thinking people.

Porter · « **Reply #302 on:** October 29, 2011, 11:44:08 PM »

Plus me.

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #303 on:** October 30, 2011, 12:01:16 AM »

You're already pausing at the "or," you don't also need the comma.

Silly wrong-thinking people.

Ela · « **Reply #304 on:** October 30, 2011, 07:28:51 AM »

Quote from: Jonathon on October 29, 2011, 07:33:07 PM

I assume you're asking about the comma before "or"? I prefer it.

As do all right-thinking people.

That's what I was asking, and I agree. But some of the people I am with don't. So I asked.

Jonathon · « **Reply #305 on:** October 30, 2011, 09:22:59 AM »

Quote from: Marianne Dashwood on October 30, 2011, 12:01:16 AM

You're already pausing at the "or," you don't also need the comma.

Silly wrong-thinking people.

But the "or" by itself does not signal a pause or break between list items.

The Genuine · « **Reply #306 on:** October 30, 2011, 03:49:19 PM »

Do I wait in line or on line?

Jonathon · « **Reply #307 on:** October 30, 2011, 04:03:09 PM »

That basically depends on whether or not you're from the New York area.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #308 on:** October 30, 2011, 06:01:17 PM »

I mostly use "on line", but "in line" doesn't sound wrong to me when other people use it.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #309 on:** October 30, 2011, 09:49:35 PM »

I say "queued up".

BlackBlade · « **Reply #310 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:50:03 PM »

Lay turns into laid, pay turns into paid, say, turns into said. Why not layed, payed, sayed? And why do we pronounce said very differently than laid and paid?

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #311 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:54:28 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #312 on:** November 01, 2011, 04:17:52 PM »

Quote from: Marianne Dashwood on November 01, 2011, 02:54:28 PM

Case closed!

Jonathon · « **Reply #313 on:** November 01, 2011, 04:42:37 PM »

Quote from: BlackBlade on November 01, 2011, 02:50:03 PM

Lay turns into laid, pay turns into paid, say, turns into said. Why not layed, payed, sayed? And why do we pronounce said very differently than laid and paid?

I'm honestly not sure why words ending in -y sometimes become -id and sometimes -yed in the simple past and past participial forms. But I believe that the pronunciation of said comes from the fact that it's a much more frequent word than the others, and in frequent words, vowels have a tendency to shorten and centralize. I'm not sure if the shortening happened prior to the Great Vowel Shift, which kept the "eh" from turning into an "ay", or if it happened later, turning the "ay" back into an "eh".

BlackBlade · « **Reply #314 on:** November 01, 2011, 05:21:06 PM »

Near as I can tell the -ay into -aid only happens with some single consonants followed by -ay. It doesn't happen with more than one consonant that is followed by -ay.

It perplexes me.

Jonathon · « **Reply #315 on:** November 01, 2011, 06:40:59 PM »

I'm not sure there's really a pattern there. Or rather, I'm not sure that's the reason why they vary that way.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #316 on:** November 02, 2011, 10:54:03 AM »

Quote from: Jonathon on November 01, 2011, 06:40:59 PM

I'm not sure there's really a pattern there. Or rather, I'm not sure that's the reason why they vary that way.

I'm not sure it is either, but I don't have a better explanation.

pooka · « **Reply #317 on:** November 03, 2011, 02:28:07 PM »

I didn't think there weren't verbs ending in Y that didn't do that, but then Spacepook mention play and played. Because if play followed that rule, it would be plaid. Thus sayeth Spacepook.

rivka · « **Reply #318 on:** November 03, 2011, 03:10:20 PM »

Frayed, strayed, stayed, bayed, flayed, grayed, hayed, prayed.

dkw · « **Reply #319 on:** November 03, 2011, 04:46:54 PM »

Belayed.

rivka · « **Reply #320 on:** November 03, 2011, 04:54:12 PM »

Good one!

pooka · « **Reply #321 on:** November 04, 2011, 05:41:50 PM »

A lot of those are verbings. I think it has a lot to do with how long a word has been a verb.

rivka · « **Reply #322 on:** November 04, 2011, 05:56:35 PM »

Jonathon would know better, but I think almost all of those are long-standing verbs.

Jonathon · « **Reply #323 on:** November 04, 2011, 07:15:46 PM »

I'm not going to bother looking all of them up, but many of those go back to Old or Middle English. Some of the others came in during Early Modern English, when spelling was still being standardized. It might have something to do with frequency—that is, more frequently used words tend to retain irregular morphology or spelling—but I'm not totally sure.

pooka · « **Reply #324 on:** November 05, 2011, 10:50:07 PM »

Stay goes both ways, staid and stayed. So I guess it could be a participle thing.