Play it by?

Originally Posted by osarusan

Both are grammatically correct.


This one is wrong. "Forever" is an adverb of time, not frequency.

Gramatically, it is the same kind of word as "tomorrow".
You can't modify them with "almost".

Interesting. I knew the law of averages would dictate that I'd eventually learn something on this site .

Originally Posted by osarusan

This one is wrong. "Forever" is an adverb of time, not frequency.

Gramatically, it is the same kind of word as "tomorrow".
You can't modify them with "almost".

Wouldn't that imply that I can't say that it's "almost 2 o'clock"?

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Wouldn't that imply that I can't say that it's "almost 2 o'clock"?

If the sentence or example you are thinking about is along the lines of "It is almost 2 o'clock", then "o'clock" is modifying the noun, or pronoun "it", it is not referring to the time any action is being done.

"I'll do it at 2 o'clock" would be using "o'clock" as an adverb of time, referring to the time "it" will be done. You couldn't put "almost" into that sentence.

EDIT : But when I said "almost" can't be used to modify "forever" and "tomorrow", I was talking about them specifically, rather than examples of a general rule.

Nice one.

To paraphrase "Blazing Saddles" - "Never mind that sh*t!!! - Check out Totty Watch!!!!!!!!!!"

Originally Posted by Wolfie

To paraphrase "Blazing Saddles" - "Never mind that sh*t!!! - Check out Totty Watch!!!!!!!!!!"

So does that thread keep 'The Wolf from the Whore' then - for a while at least?

Someone just explained to me that they are being used as "an escape goat".

It threw me for a few seconds.

They meant "scape goat".

that reminds me i heard one last week. Not the worst offence in the world but worthy of a mention

"perverting the courts of justice"

To my eternal shame, I also used the wrong expression for a while. I would tell ye what it was, but I don't want to upset the apple tart.

"...all my talk of food was only a dead herring"

Originally Posted by Wolfie

Someone just explained to me that they are being used as "an escape goat".

It threw me for a few seconds.

They meant "scape goat".

What about defeat to when it should be defeat by ? The former has taken over but I firmly believe that it is incorrect. You don't say Bohs were defeated to Rovers so why is it correct to say Bohs suffered defeat to Rovers?

Isn't it just that one is being used as a verb (defeat by) and the other is using defeat as (I'm going to say) a noun? In your example suffer is the verb.