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Re: British vs. American Grammar

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: British vs. American Grammar
From: Michael Hargreave Mawson <OC@46thFoot.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 06:13:31 +0000
References: <047101c1c303$ed419160$de8ceed0@utcpoqli>
User-agent: Turnpike/6.00-U (<LxVf5jpHTJ4KxZf4nSFlqLdH9U>)
In article <047101c1c303$ed419160$de8ceed0@utcpoqli>, Phil Ethier 
<pethier@isd.net> writes

>Do "electric
>torches" in the UK run on "batteries" or "cells"?

Depends on how pedantic the owner is.   Scientists and electricians 
occasionally refer to torch cells, but the rest of us use the word 
"battery" even when referring to single cells.   I suspect a large 
proportion of those who do are aware that it is, strictly speaking, 
"wrong".

Still more of us use the word "ruler" for a long straight thing with 
measurement gradations on it, despite knowing perfectly well that the 
correct word is "rule" - a "ruler" being a monarch.

ATB

-- 
Mike
Michael Hargreave Mawson, author of "Eyewitness in the Crimea"
http://www.greenhillbooks.com/booksheets/eyewitness_in_the_crimea.html

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