saturated brick plinths.

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: I didn't need foundations in those days.

But The Fens is a distinct geographical area, whereas the fens are all the areas of fen. Like Norfolk Broads and Norfolk broads. I once had a computer with a grammar check that insisted the two latter terms were sexist and tried to change a sentence to "The Norfolk women offer numerous opportunities for leisure activities."

What an entertaining grammar check!

I think you're right about those fens (of course you're right!) "The Moors rewards walkers... the moors reward walkers..." both OK!

I remember endless happy discussions with Mr Nomura about "the army trains soldiers/the army train soldiers". Murphy's Advanced Grammar In Use said both were OK.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

So is

"This Government is totally cr@p" correct?

or should it be:

"This Government are totally cr@p"?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

So is

"This Government is totally cr@p" correct?

or should it be:

"This Government are totally cr@p"?

Neither. It's "carp". Pay attention at the back there.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:
Hughes, please be less funny just before bedtime!

Hugh, both are OK- as with all verb agreement with organisations that can be considered as either a single or plural entity- school is/are, church is/are etc.

 

[Gervase]

In most newspaper style books the convention is for proper journalists to treat collective nouns as singular (the Army is, the BBC is etc), whereas the sweaties - the sports writers who fill the back pages and for whom language is often a second language - are permitted to break the rules and use collective nouns as plurals (Arsenal are, England are and all that sort of thing :roll: ). They usually get frisked every morning by a senior sub-editor, and one will often see a tell-tale bag of grocer's apostrophes in the sportsdesk wastebasket.

 

[Penners]

Ahh, the mountains of Norwich.

As we're moving much closer, I must learn to ski.

 

[AMc]

the earliest is this fall.i

.

Aha - I spy an american (possibly an American).

Not sure why I get tarred with an American brush, that wasn't me! I have nothing but respect for the Americans, but I'm not one.

And my house is 3m above the water table (I can see it down 't well). It certainly feels like a hill as I make the last bit home on the bike.

 

[AMc]

Ahh, the mountains of Norwich.

As we're moving much closer, I must learn to ski.

http://www.norfolkski.com/ positively alpine we are!

 

[CHRIS]

Ahh, the mountains of Norwich.

As we're moving much closer, I must learn to ski.

http://www.norfolkski.com/ positively alpine we are!

You will not have too far to go if this gets going!!!!!

http://www.snoasis.co.uk/snoasis/?q=about_snoasis

 

[robgil]

is Suffolk classed as daarn saaf then?

 

[Flyfisher]

Depends on your location I suppose. I recall a sailing trip to Loch Lomond during which the boat yard chappie explained that he always "went south" for his holidays . . . to the lake district.

 

[robgil]

i suppose anywhere south of your current location is indeed down south.
coolio , looks like i may well be moving up north then , to Suffolk.

 

[CHRIS]

is Suffolk classed as daarn saaf then?

We say "across or over to Suffolk"

 

[Feltwell]

is Suffolk classed as daarn saaf then?

It is if you're from Norfolk!

Anyone know if there is any truth in the belief that the names Norfolk and Suffolk are derived from the North Folk and the South Folk? Seems a bit too convenient!

 

[robgil]

no truth in it at all. Suffolk definitely means ''up north'' (where all the real men live) and Norfolk means 'slightly north of Suffolk'.

 

[Penners]

Yes, it's absolutely true. East Anglia became a stronghold of the invading Angles, in around the 6th century (I think). There was some Saxon colonisation too. In fact, it eventually became an independent kingdom, populated by the "north folk" and the "south folk".

 

[fjpdesigns]

And in Essex they were the East Saxons as opposed to further west where the West Saxons lived in Wessex.

 

[Penners]

And did you know that King (later Saint) Edmund of Anglia, murdered by the Danes in the 9th century, was once the patron saint of all England?

Saint George didn't take over until 1222, and we have to share him as patron saint with several other countries, including Greece, Portugal and Russia.

Bury St Edmunds is, of course, named after St Edmund - not because he's buried there, but because it was his "borough".

Sorry - I'm rambling....

 

[Flyfisher]

Hence "St Edmundsbury" on various maps I've seen, presumably?

 

[robgil]

and did you know that St George probably never actually set foot in England?