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Here's one which may not have been mentioned before, which I just came across again: Writing "without much adieu" instead of "without much ado".

To me there's no difference, but there's a paragraph here which implies that there are countries where there is one.

Robin

At least those are different forms of the same word, not two different words altogether.



In many dialects you get a glottal stop instead of a fully pronounced 't' (or 'd', for instance in...

In fact that is a linguistic phenomenon in English called 'intrusive r'.

I got another common mistake: writing 'loose' where 'lose' is intended.

Robin

"I can not eat the cake if you want to save it for later."

In a speech situation one could say that, stressing the 'not', and mean "If you want to save the cake for later, then I won't eat it...

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this ground."

I see absolutely no reason to have 'can not' here instead of 'cannot' - not even based on the...

No, that's entirely correct.

Robin

All instances of 'I cannot write' mean 'I am unable to write' - я не могу писать. 'I may not write' means that I am as yet undecided whether I will write or not. There's no question of capability,...

This is the first time I have ever heard of such a distinction. According to what I learned in school a long time ago, 'cannot' is the common orthographic form while 'can not' is not. Prescriptive...

Well, at least you certainly wouldn't insert 'risk' here. ;) I think people tend to see 'chance' as a synonym for 'probability' and feel that the positive connotation is absent. Is there a 50:50...

Sure you can always rearrange the sentence, just like you can always use another language entirely, the question is, why? What use is it? This aversion against sentences with 'there' is right up...

There's a reason there are sentences which begin with 'there' or would you rather have this as "A reason is, sentences are, which begin with 'there'"?

Robin

As you alll know... at 7:00 p.m at the... The festival is being (will be) held from October 23rd-25th. It will cost $10 and a_part of the proceeds for the festival goes to (will go to) Breast Cancer...

8 depending on how I count.

Robin

I think in the sense of 'before we consider the main things, let's first discuss X' you can well use 'first' without a 'second'. You could also use it with 'then', either spelled out or implied.

Adverbs (-ly) really don't make sense here. You can usually replace an adverb with a phrase like 'in X fashion': he replied eagerly = he replied in an eager fashion. There is no such thing as...

Yes, you did. And that's another fine example for a common mistake in English: writing "who's" instead of "whose". "Who's" is short for "who is" or "who has" only.

Robin

First, computers do what I tell them to. They fear me. :) That's probably why you lost your first post. I'm one of those geeks who, by merely standing next to you when you want to show them a...

I prefer the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things, but yes, some of the expressions may be seen as tautologies, which, however, can have their uses. I mean, if 'surrounded' is always...

No. That's obviously a colloquial expression, and anything which makes the topic at hand seem even older and more passé goes. I'd suggest they are so pre-ancient history even.

Both English and...

In my role as co-host of the Ancient History forum at about.com I strongly object to the allegation that this was a redundant expression. Ancient history covers the time from the invention of written...

Thats very good to know, thanks, especially as it is exactly like German 'und noch' - finally something I can just translate literally. ;)

Robin

The dictionary is bookmarked for later reference, thanks.

The one Russian band I found which I really like is Slot (Слот). I downloaded their albums from amazon.de, and printed their lyrics from...

I'm not sure that's true for me. Of course I needed to acquire a sound knowledge of English grammar because I studied the language at university, but when I look back at how I actually learned the...

Is it a comparison? Than.
Is it a sequence? Then.

Robin