Hi, Ivan!  Recently you wrote in a message to mark lewis:

ml>  the point is that you don't learn someone something...
ml>  you teach someone something 

ml>  it is kind of like "sell" and "sale"...  you put
ml>  something on sale that you want to sell...  i
ml>  always cringe and bit my tongue when i see someone
ml>  insist and even argue about writting that they have
ml>  something "for sell"...

ml>  eg: i have a knife set for sell. call me!

IS>  Somehow, I stumble upon examples like this all the
IS>  time, and /that/ hurts!  It's almost as if I'm living
IS>  in a country where English is not an official language,
IS>  or something...

IS>  ... Well, wait.  Indeed, I'm living in such a country.
IS>  What a misfortune!


           In that regard I doubt you'd be better off here.  Athough English is
 one of the official languages of Canada, my experience is similar to Mark's. 
I understand why people from southeast Asia often have difficulty with plurals
in English and/or with where we'd draw the line between /r/ and /l/.  As Roy
says, Canada & the US are multicultural countries.  But when I hear on the
radio, for the umpteenth time, that there's a traffic stall on the "Patella
Bridge" I have much the same reaction Mark does.  The name of the bridge is
"Pattullo", and it sounds just the way it looks... the "patella" is the
kneecap.  Apparently there are many young native speakers of English who
haven't grasped the concept.  ;-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)