The fast-access FAQ

[Prefatory remarks]

Welcome to alt.usage.english!

• guidelines for posting
• related newsgroups

recommended books

• dictionaries
• online dictionaries
• general reference
• grammars
• books on linguistics
• books on usage
• online usage guides
• online language columns
• books that discriminate synonyms
• style manuals
• books on mathematical exposition
• books on phrasal verbs
• books on phrase origins
• books on Britishisms, Canadianisms, etc.
• books on "bias-free"/"politically correct" language
• books on group names
• books on rhyming slang

artificial dialects

• Basic English
• E-prime

pronunciation

• how to represent pronunciation in ASCII
• rhotic vs non-rhotic, intrusive "r"
• How do Americans pronounce "dog"?
• words pronounced differently according to context
• words whose spelling has influenced their pronunciation

usage disputes

• "acronym"
• "all ... not"
• "alot"
• "alright"
• "between you and I"
• "company is" vs "company are"
• "could care less"
• "could of"
• "different to", "different than"
• "done"="finished"
• double "is"
• "due to"
• "functionality"
• gender-neutral pronouns
• "God rest you merry, gentlemen"
• "hopefully", "thankfully"
• "if I was" vs "if I were"
• "impact"="to affect"
• "It needs cleaned"
• "It's me" vs "it is I"
• "less" vs "fewer"
• "like" vs "as"
• "like" vs "such as"
• "more/most/very unique"
• "mouses" vs "mice"
• "near miss"
• "none is" vs "none are"
• plurals
  • plurals of Latin and Greek words
  • plurals => English singulars
• preposition at end
• "quality"
• repeated words after abbreviations
• "Scotch"
• "shall" vs "will", "would" vs "should"
• split infinitive
• "that" vs "which"
• "that kind of a thing"
• the the hoi polloi debate
• "true fact"
• "try and", "be sure and", "go" + verb
• "whom"
• "you saying" vs "your saying"

punctuation

• "." after abbreviations
• spaces between sentences
• ," vs ",
• "A, B and C" vs "A, B, and C"
• See also, from the "spelling" section: possessive apostrophes

foreigners' FAQs

• "a"/"an" before abbreviations
• "A number of..."
• when to use "the"
• subjunctive

word origins

• "A.D."
• "alumin(i)um"
• "bloody"
• "bug"="defect"
• "Caesarean section"
• "canola"
• "catch-22"
• "cop"
• "copacetic"
• "crap"
• "ebonics"
• "eighty-six"="nix"
• "Eskimo"
• "flammable"
• "freeway"
• "fuck"
• "golf"
• "hooker"
• "ISO"
• "jerry-built"/"jury-rigged"
• "kangaroo"
• "limerence"
• "loo"
• "love"="zero"
• "merkin"
• "nimrod"
• "O.K."
• "outrage"
• "paparazzo"
• "pie-shaped"
• "portmanteau word"
• "posh"
• "quiz"
• "Santa Ana"
• "scot-free"
• "sincere"
• "sirloin"/"baron of beef"
• "SOS"
• "spoonerism"
• "suck"="be very unsatisfying"
• "till"/"until"
• "tip"
• "titsling"/"brassiere"
• "troll"
• "typo"
• "Wicca"
• "widget"
• "wog"
• "wonk"
• "wop"
• "ye"="the"

phrase origins

• "the bee's knees"
• "beg the question"
• "billions and billions"
• "blue moon"
• "Bob's your uncle"
• "break a leg"
• "to call a spade a spade"
• "cut the mustard"
• "cut to the chase"
• "The die is cast"
• "dressed to the nines"
• "Elementary, my dear Watson!"
• "Enquiring minds want to know"
• "The exception proves the rule"
• "face the music"
• "fall off a turnip truck"
• "full monty"
• "Get the lead out"
• "Go figure"
• "Go placidly amid the noise and the haste" (Desiderata)
• "go to hell in a handbasket"
• "hell for leather"
• "hoist with his own petard"
• "by hook or by crook"
• "Illegitimis non carborundum"
• "in like Flynn"
• "Jingle Bells"
• "Let them eat cake"
• "mind your p's and q's"
• "more honoured in the breach than the observance"
• "more than you can shake a stick at"
• "ollie ollie oxen free"
• "peter out"
• "politically correct"
• "push the envelope"
• "put in one's two cents' worth"
• "rule of thumb"
• "shouting fire in a crowded theater"
• "son of a gun"
• "spitting image"/"spit and image"
• "There's a sucker born every minute"
• "to all intents and purposes"
• "wait for the other shoe to drop"
• "Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
• "whole cloth"
• "the whole nine yards"
• "You have another think coming"

words frequently sought

• words ending in "-gry"
• words without vowels
• list of language terms
• "I won't mention..."
• names of "&", "@", and "#"
• "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
• "Take the prisoner downstairs", said Tom condescendingly.
• What is the opposite of "to exceed"?
• What is the opposite of "distaff side"?
• grass strip between road and sidewalk

miscellany

• What is a suggested format for citing online sources?
• Does the next millennium begin in 2000 or 2001?
• What will we call the next decade?
• Fumblerules ("Don't use no double negatives", etc.)
• English is Tough Stuff
• What is the phone number of the Grammar Hotline?
• deliberate mistakes in dictionaries
• How reliable are dictionaries?
• etymologies of personal names
• How did "Truly" become a personal name?
• trademarks
• commonest words
• Why do we say "30 years old" but "a 30-year-old man"?
• What words are their own antonym?
• sentences grammatical in both Old English and Modern English
• radio alphabets
• distribution of English-speakers
• provenance of English vocabulary
• "billion": a U.K. view
• Biblical sense of "to know"
• postfix "not"
• origin of the dollar sign

spelling

• spelling reform
• joke about step-by-step spelling reform
• What is "ghoti"?
• I before E except after C
• How do you spell "e-mail"?
• Why is "I" capitalized?
• diacritics
• "-er" vs "-re"
• "-ize" vs "-ise"
• doubling of final consonants before suffixes
• possessive apostrophes

Mark's words look like this.

     [Words that aren't Mark's look like this.]
[...]

     [Bracketed dots replace URLs that are known
     to be no longer valid.]