Wordwizard

"What gives you that idea?" is typically a formulation used to express either vehemence or sarcasm/irony (for example, if the speaker was clutching a grab handle so tightly that their knuckles had gone white, revealing their level of fear). "What makes you think so?" is more neutral in terms of conv...

Bobinwales wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:00 pm A bloke in the pub told me that his friend is a property developer, he absolutely refuses to use teabags.

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They are all passable in speech, but they are also pretty awkward-sounding and clumsily worded. I would replace your first pair, a) and b), with: Among the writers at the party was one who had written an unknown number of books. I would replace the second pair with: Among the writers at the party wa...

To my mind, 2) sounds perfunctory -- it's a very socially conventional exhortation. 1) sounds much more as if the person speaking it really means it.

trolley wrote: ↑Sat Nov 28, 2020 3:21 am If you really want to be sure there is no misunderstanding...try "Get the fuck out of my way"

I like your Gordian knot-slashing style.

Interviewer: What would you say is your worst quality?

Old man: I’m too honest.

Interviewer: I hardly think that’s a bad quality.

Old man: I don’t give a fuck what you think!

Only b) sounds natural to me, though it would not surprise me if I heard c).

a) is grammatically correct, but it makes the speaker sound long-winded and pedantic.

There's a common idiom, "to {wake up on / get out of} the wrong side of the bed", meaning "to be in a bad mood". Person D has just adapted it for the context of this discussion.

I can understand what they're getting at, but I don't think this latest twist on the idiom is likely to become widespread.

An aerospace engineer explains the future airliner cockpit concept to an airline pilot: "So, the cockpit in our next-generation airliners will have a computer, a dog and one of you guys. The computer will fly the plane, and you'll monitor the computer." "And what's the dog for?" "Making sure you don...

I've just heard the BBC reporter Danny Vincent speaking of the "strong weakening of the activists" in the context of the opposition in Hong Kong to the efforts by the government of mainland China to tighten their control over the territory.

Enjoy your delusions, Phil.

Here's a handy how-to guide on folding hospital corners: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Hospital-Corner

Personally, I feel that life's too short for this kind of obsessiveness, though in a hotel, hospital or barracks there is arguably some point to it.

Like his boss Donald Trump, Giuliani's dyeing to run again for office -- hopefully with similar success.

{Nothing could / There's nothing to} touch Trolley's response.

"Were you trying to kill us both, you ******* *****!?"