Wordwizard

You're very welcome, Steven. It seems to me that your command of the nuances of English has improved greatly over the years that you have been posting your questions here. Of course, those of us who have responded to them just gave you a few nudges now and again – you yourself have done by far the m...

I can only state my own sorrow at the impending demise of the Wordwizard site. I have spent countless (usually) enjoyable hours since 1997 reading other people's postings here and adding quite a few of my own, including a large number of jokes that I found elsewhere on the Web and often rewrote for ...

A Russian, an American and a Frenchman were on a desert island, training for the International Space Station. While jogging together on the beach, they spied an Arabian lamp poking out of the sand. As a joke, the American rubbed it, and — quite naturally — a genie appeared. The genie said, “As there...

If you said you had squeezed the toothpaste tube a lot, I would take that to mean that you had forced as much of it out as you could by squeezing the tube very thoroughly.

I concur with your interpretation of "beaten up a lot".

"Very" is more flexible than "much" in descriptions, because it can qualify adjectives. They are very clever. *They are much clever. However, both "very" and "much" work with some verbs: He was very surprised by her question. He was much surprised by her question. But: She much appreciated his respo...

They are all correct, grammatically speaking.

However, I don't think a native speaker would ever utter 4), 5) or 6).

A bloke in the pub told me he was a funeral director, and that he was now in trouble with the police. He’s been charged with living off immortal urnings.

A bloke in the pub asked me if I’d ever read A Christmas Carol . He said it was the story of a hard-hearted capitalist banker who learns to treat his employees decently and thereby reclaim his humanity. I told him it was clearly different to the story I know that shares the same title, which is the ...

When I was about six, everyone in my class was told they were expected to buy a recorder for music lessons. I remember my class teacher, who organised the purchase, saying they cost nineteen shillings and sixpence. In those days, that was a small fortune for my parents to have to afford. Our recorde...

Maybe the speaker meant something slightly different... the other guy was saying "wasn't me, wasn't me, wasn't me" until it became annoying? That's how it comes across in terms of the logic of the words. But the context would influence my perception of the intended meaning: for instance, if I'd not...

For b) to be correct, the verb "remove" would need to be associated with the same preposition as "do/did", e.g. "play (with)" or “mess about (with)", in order to be congruent with "did with". I have no problem with a), which exactly matches how I would express the idea. As you say, c) is a bit awkwa...

I prefer b), but the construction in a) is also standard. I can discern no difference in meaning.

As far as I can see, my understanding of "memento" somewhat differs from yours, Tony. Dictionary.com offers the following definitions: 1) an object or item that serves to remind one of a person, past event, etc.; keepsake; souvenir. 2) anything serving as a reminder or warning. 3) Roman Catholic Chu...

trolley wrote: ↑Sat Apr 02, 2022 11:27 pm I'd much rather have one of you guys spare me 200 dollars than spare myself 200 dollars.

Trolley illustrates another usage of "spare", roughly meaning "give" ("spare me 200 dollars") when used reflexively in relation to a third party.

I can only surmise that "a sail around the coast road" is a regionalism: it isn't a usage I had come across before your posting. I wonder whether the expression "sail off down the road" (which I am familiar with and have used myself) may have been influenced by the similar-sounding "sally", as it is...