Experts pore [sic] anxiously over Beijing English menus

China Daily ^ | 04/13/2007 | Xinhua

[Old Professer]

It’s about selling an idea or argument according to Webster.

[Old Professer]

I once was cautioned not to use used to to replace once.

[Old Professer]

Their descendants taught them bad.

[Old Professer]

“ceremoney “

Every father of the bride knows that this is the correct spelling, emphasis on last syllable.

[Constitution Day]

I once was cautioned not to use used to to replace once.

Your cautionary tale illustrates why you are an Old Professer, and I am merely wet-behind-the-ears.

Always striving for grammatical excellence,
CD

[Silly]

Yes, thanks for point that out. I will forward the revision to OED.

[ViLaLuz]

Even if they beat you - you win...

[Tax-chick]

After all this discussion, I’ll stick with not using “soft-pedal,” instead of not using “soft-peddle” :-=).

[Tax-chick]

So much for the hard-sell (1,293,000); or should that be hard-sale (33,000)?

This suggests, CD, that by the time you're old enough to call yourself an "Old Professor," you'll have prostrate cancer.

[firebrand]

But don't forget, it's M&M's, with an apostrophe (trademark).

Even worse, Rhode's 19, the line of boats that is named after someone named Rhodes. When I saw that right on the side of the boat, I almost refused to get in.

[firebrand]

Can't agree with this one, Old Prof. "I once went there" is quite different from "I used to go there."

Great thing about Fowler, in addition to his puncturing the balloons of the pretentious, is that he always sticks to the language the way it is spoken or the way it is written by those with common sense.

Most copyeditors will shift the word "only" to its logical place in the sentence, but Fowler says sometimes it is earlier than its logical place as a kind of signal to what the rest of the sentence is going to say. Compare "I gave him only five dollars" with "I only gave him five dollars." The second is less logical but more colloquial and therefore easier to read.

[NCSteve]

90% of the people you converse with in writing would never know the difference.

[Tax-chick]

Maybe 99%, since you and I, fanatics on the subject, can’t be totally firm on the correct usage!

[Old Professer]

Or flat on my face.

[Old Professer]

WBTE; the last place they wipe your slimy body after being thrust into this strange environment.

[Old Professer]

Don’t confuse, “Once, I went there” with “I once went there.”

And, especially, don’t confuse “habitually” with “used to.”