this has been bugging me for quite some time. it's a "minor" detail, but i figure it's something the writers should have thought about.

( in case some of you haven't watched season 5 yet )

It just occurred to me: if after the Incident/Dharma, the Island was lethal to pregnant woman, how did Danielle have Alex without either of them dying?

I frequently hear, "If I was to (verb)... as opposed to "If I were to (verb)... Am I just being "old school" applying grammar rules that are no longer in use?

I cringe when I hear "if I was...", but I do know that acceptable grammar usage does change through the years, so am I just being out of tune with current changes?

Sign me,
Old Lady Former ESL Teacher

I made a video about the CAST of LOST.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEC1xUE2Ku4

I love Elizabeth in this interview, she is so relaxed and almost giddy about her work. Elizabeth talks the finale, her theories and a little bit about next season.

"New" Lost Elizabeth Mitchell Interview: Lost & V


Xposted

Poor English.

Kristen answers fan questions. Read under cut!
Warning: Spoilers! ( click! )

I have a Japanese friend who already speaks English fairly well, but since he'd like to improve his fluency he asked if I could help him out with grammar and so on. I agreed, but then he hit me with a question I can't think of any satisfactory answer for!

We talk about travelling in a car or taxi, but on a train or plane, and he wants to know why that is since you're still in an enclosed space on a train or plane and not literally sitting on top of them. The best explanation I've managed to come up with is that boarding a plane or train involves stepping onto a platform before going to your seat, whereas when you get into a car or taxi you usually go straight from standing to sitting in your seat. I'm not sure if that's a decent explanation for the grammar though, or just a handy way to remember which is which.

Is there a decent explanation for this particular grammatical rule? Or is it one of those things where there is no particular reason why the rule works that way?

In a community about languages, a person who wishes to learn Portuguese wants to know how to connect with native speakers in Portugal, presumably by webcam/Skype. The concluding sentence of the post is this:

if you reply, please include your country of origin and your experience in romance

I would be happy to tell you my experience in Romance languages, Skippy, but I really don't think you want to hear about my disastrous first marriage, nor am I telling you about the really, really good parts!

"...one bye one". Dear me, I though my community was more educated than that! I hope that was a typo.

One thing that annoys me to no end is the "as/that + adjective + of" construction. For example, I've seen people write things like "We haven't been as good of friends lately" and today I saw "The doctor had never seen that clean of casts before". I don't understand how someone could think that doesn't sound horribly clumsy at the very least. If it is grammatically acceptable, please tell me.