Tagged Questions
-2
votes
1answer
504 views
What is the origin of the “should of” instead of “should have” mistake? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How did the use of “could of” and “should of” originate, and is it considered correct?
Recently, I tend to stumble a lot over the mistake that people write should of ...
8
votes
2answers
693 views
Plural of “abacus”
A colleague and I were having a discussion as to the proper plural form of abacus. I believe the plural would be abacuses and he feels that the proper form would be abaci. I believe that abacuses is ...
3
votes
3answers
420 views
Why is there a “one” before “hundred”, “thousand”, etc. but not “ten”?
As the title says, why is there a "one" before "hundred", before "thousand", and so on, but not before "ten"?
This seems shared between some languages, including Chinese (10 = 十 = ten, 100 = 一百 = one ...
6
votes
1answer
472 views
Why is “ouster” the act of ousting and not one who ousts?
The question should be clear enough from the title.
Also: What are we supposed to call one who ousts? [If this warrants another question, I will edit this out and open another question.]
2
votes
1answer
425 views
7
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the origin of the phrase “you've got another thing/think coming”?
What is the origin of the phrase "you've got another thing coming"? And — perhaps more importantly — is it more correct than the alternative "you've got another think coming"?
1
vote
2answers
483 views
The grammatical strangeness of “done me wrong” and “did me service”
Why are "done me wrong" and "did me service" established phrases instead of the more standard "He wronged me" and "He serviced [helped] me"?
EDIT: I just realized whatever connection I saw with ...
6
votes
2answers
287 views
How did 'mad' come to be a determiner?
There's a group of words — I think they're called determiners — used to indicate number in some way... like many, few, most, etc. During a linguistics class my professor said this was a closed group ...
7
votes
2answers
926 views
Origin of different past tenses for verbs with the same endings?
Why do we have a situation where the past of "to blow" is "blew", but of "to glow" is "glowed"? And don't say "flew" if you mean "it flowed". The poem Lovers, by Phoebe Cary has many examples of ...
7
votes
2answers
195 views
The all-powerful “to have”
"To have" seems to fill a lot of different needs in the English language, apart from its literal meaning of possessing something.
It's an integral part of perfect and perfect progressive verb tenses: ...
20
votes
5answers
1k views
When did “while” and “whilst” become interchangeable?
I think most folk happily use either "while" or "whilst". I've a vague recollection that at one time "while" indicated the passing of time and "whilst" was essentially the same as "whereas" or ...
