Tämä viestiketju on "uinuva" —viimeisin viesti on vanhempi kuin 90 päivää. Ryhmä "virkoaa", kun lähetät vastauksen.
1Novak
Just finished Lee Child's excellent Without Fail. An expression we all use but hardly good grammar, is it?
2Novak
Just finished Lee Child's excellent Without Fail. An expression we all use but hardly good grammar, is it?
4lilithcat
It was good grammar at the time the phrase originated. According to the OED, "fail" as a noun is an obsolete synonym for failure, and the usage survives only in the expression "without fail".
5jjwilson61
How about Epic Fail?
6thorold
>5 jjwilson61:
The OED hasn't quite caught up with YouTube yet, but in their "Draft additions 1993" they do list fail (n) as the opposite of "pass" in an exam.
The OED hasn't quite caught up with YouTube yet, but in their "Draft additions 1993" they do list fail (n) as the opposite of "pass" in an exam.
7Muscogulus
> 3 Something weird was going on yesterday. I had a post on another thread appear to be deleted, but then it wasnt.
8lilithcat
> 3, 7
Not just yesterday. That message occurs when the system sees a blank post, which often happens when the servers are slow.
Not just yesterday. That message occurs when the system sees a blank post, which often happens when the servers are slow.
9darrow
On a similar theme, I am disturbed by the British road sign: "Road liable to flooding". Liable to flood, surely?
I would accept "prone to flooding".
I would accept "prone to flooding".
10Novak
>7 Muscogulus: I don't know if it's a bug.
I typed my message @ 1.. Hit "post message" and up comes "This message has been deleted by author."
OK.. .. typed it again 2 and had my grumble 3.
To add insult to injury, when I came bach to read lilithcat's post (Thank you, lilith') a few hours later.. .. .. it had changed. My message was back in duplicate. Grrrrr! :o)
I typed my message @ 1.. Hit "post message" and up comes "This message has been deleted by author."
OK.. .. typed it again 2 and had my grumble 3.
To add insult to injury, when I came bach to read lilithcat's post (Thank you, lilith') a few hours later.. .. .. it had changed. My message was back in duplicate. Grrrrr! :o)
11jjwilson61
>10 Novak: It was never really gone, just lost in the bowels of LT for a while.
12thorold
>9 darrow:
"Liable to flood" is tricky: pedants might argue that it's the river that floods, the road that is flooded. If you treat "flooding" as a noun (which is just about permissible), "liable to flooding" seems to be acceptable usage.
I don't like "prone to flooding" - for one thing, "prone" has all sorts of other, possibly confusing, meanings, and for another, when you use "prone to" to mean "liable to", it almost always seems to be with reference to people, rather than inanimate objects.
I'm sure they could have found a more succinct way to express it. "Flood risk ahead" might be rather more effective, for instance. In countries other than the UK, they might be liable to spend the money on raising the road level and/or putting in better drains rather than on putting up a signpost...
"Liable to flood" is tricky: pedants might argue that it's the river that floods, the road that is flooded. If you treat "flooding" as a noun (which is just about permissible), "liable to flooding" seems to be acceptable usage.
I don't like "prone to flooding" - for one thing, "prone" has all sorts of other, possibly confusing, meanings, and for another, when you use "prone to" to mean "liable to", it almost always seems to be with reference to people, rather than inanimate objects.
I'm sure they could have found a more succinct way to express it. "Flood risk ahead" might be rather more effective, for instance. In countries other than the UK, they might be liable to spend the money on raising the road level and/or putting in better drains rather than on putting up a signpost...
13CDVicarage
>12 thorold: A section of my route to work used to flood regularly and the Highways Authority worked on the drainage again and again - the resulting traffic light controlled hold-ups being far more annoying than the large puddle that we otherwise had to drive through - but they finally gave up and put up a new road sign 'Road liable to flooding' and there's been no flooding since, even during the last very wet winter.
14thorold
>13 CDVicarage:
Maybe I was underestimating the resourcefulnessof British highway engineers!
Maybe I was underestimating the resourcefulnessof British highway engineers!