Wordwizard

Sorry for resurrecting this one, but I see that three years have passed since the original post. Having learned to read Braille, albeit slowly, and having read through a few dozen magazines, the Hitchhikers' Guide and a good few poems from an anthology I ordered, I gradually stopped reading Braille ...

One book that shaped my thinking for years was "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler. I suspect that it is still massively relevant - even more so now, so read it if you can get a copy. Many, many years ago, I lent it out and it never came back. Years later, I was talking to a colleague about it and said ...

Bob's answers only appear to be bizarre. They are correct. As so often, context and pragmatics alone determine what is possible or not. "He put his hand over his right eye" almost certainly means that he covered his eye. "He but his hand over his eyes" could be either. Only context will determine wh...

a. Has he ever not helped you when you asked him for help? The speaker believes that the person has always helped if asked. b. Hasn't he ever helped you when you asked him for help? The speaker is surprised to find out that he has probably never helped when asked. c. Has he not ever helped you when ...

And I now have so much more room for all my DVDs ... which I can't really ... oh, forget it....

My house is alien to me now. No longer home. Wherever I look, there are blank spaces where you should be. Reminders of a lifetime. Those of you who visit here regularly will know that I lost most of my sight a few years back. I have been completely unable to read print for about six or seven years, ...

In fluent speech I do something like "Febraee", where there may or may not be a very slight rhotacization after the "a" (Febraree). The thing that really gets lost, pretty well invariably in my ideolect, is the "u".

I can't think of anything specific for such words, although, as Tony has pointed out, some have perfectly plausible etymology, such as "pineapple". There are words that mean the opposite of what they mean (yes, this does make sense), and these are called "auto-antonyms" (such as "fast", which can me...

Thanks for that, Erik

Audi Yadoo

... It just decided to travel by Southern Rail and may be delayed for a few years.

I have this dreadful vision of going into MacDonald's and being asked "do you want a side chick with that?"

Bob is right.

Generally we would avoid constructions such as those.

In spoken English you will often hear "he went out so as not to see ..."

In written English, I would go for something like "to avoid seeing".

1 is fine. Native speakers would understand it exactly the way you intend.