[mallumowgli]

Ok, its perfect continuous tense. But which one? In my opinion it would be past perfect continuous since 'by the time her plane arrives' she was already waiting (past in the future!!!). I feel 'would' will be the better word.

[Thad E Ginathom]

It happened last week, and we are discussing it today... you would have waited

It is going to happen next week... you will have waited [been waiting]

On this one, I can now say, my brain hurts!

I have not been able to name those tenses for about 45 years. I have a pretty good idea of what I would say, but I can't explain the technicalities.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

... I have a pretty good idea of what I would say, but I can't explain the technicalities.

You said it!!
Most of us learnt our English at school. At this stage in life, as seniors, it is impossible to recall the rules and terminology of grammar. But yes, we do know how we'd say it and it is likely to be correct.

[samaspire]

What do you say about this.

"Belated happy birthday XYZ"

[Thad E Ginathom]

I say that it's missing a comma!

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I say that it's missing a comma!

Young folks these days don't quite understand the significance of missing a period.

[GrammarNazi]

Can't find the relevant thread but it's been bothering me for a while how people interchangeably use "Quiet" instead of "Quite" and "Tires" instead of "Tyres".

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

Can't find the relevant thread but it's been bothering me for a while how people interchangeably use "Quiet" instead of "Quite" and "Tires" instead of "Tyres".

Incorrectly used homonyms are a nuisance (quiet vs. quite, affect vs. effect) and annoys me greatly. But the tires vs. tyre difference is just the American vs. British spelling.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Young folks these days don't quite understand the significance of missing a period.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Getting back on the topic of missing punctuation, the humble comma makes a world of difference...

I don't think that is quite right, but it it is too late to work it out.

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

Can't find the relevant thread but it's been bothering me for a while how people interchangeably use "Quiet" instead of "Quite" and "Tires" instead of "Tyres".

My big-problem spelling pairs: loose/lose quiet/quiet does/dose

and...

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Incorrectly used homonyms are a nuisance (quiet vs. quite, affect vs. effect) and annoys me greatly. But the tires vs. tyre difference is just the American vs. British spelling.

Oh! I've always been confused about tyres. Never knew that,

Those other word pairs are not actually homonyms, as they are all spelt and pronounced differently. Homonyms: dear/deer, meat/meet etc.

[Thad E Ginathom]

This thought came into my head when I half asleep this afternoon....

Onion is pronounced Union, but Union is not pronounced Onion.

[avingodb]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

My big-problem spelling pairs: loose/lose quiet/quiet does/dose

My biggest problem is with gross v. gross and no matter what I do I don't seem to remember it right. So in presentations I stick with GDP and use alternatives like aggregate etc

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Getting back on the topic of missing punctuation

that is brilliant!

[samaspire]

The name of this Tamil movie always cracked me up - Annian.



Isn't it how Onion is pronounced - A-nian

[binand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

My big-problem spelling pairs: loose/lose quiet/quiet does/dose

These are all fine; at the moment I struggle with these:

intent/intend
advice/advise

I do manage quite OK in oral contexts; just that the autocomplete feature of the software I use sometimes have views differing from mine.

[Few months back I corrected someone hierarchically senior to me on their (mis)usage of apprise and appraise; don't think it went down very well. Reminder to self: the sooner one un-learns Reply All, the better.]

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by binand

intent/intend
advice/advise

Intent is used in past tense. Intend is future tense.
Eg: That was my intent. I intend to go.

Advice is a noun, advise is a verb.
Eg: What was his advice? I will advise him.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Intent is used in past tense. Intend is future tense.
Eg: That was my intent. I intend to go.

Actually, intent is the noun;intend, the verb.
It is my intent to drive my car to Spiti once.
I intend to take my car to Spiti once.