Know Your English - May 2001

• WHAT IS the meaning of ``apple polishing''?What is the difference between ``homophone'' and ``homonym''?
• How do you answer someone who says ``Nice to meet you''?
• What is the origin of ``Jeep''?
• Is the word ``orange'' a Tamil word?
• How is the word ``paradigm'' pronounced?
• Why do we abbreviate ``example'' to ``e.g.''?
• Is it O.K to say, ``What class are you reading?''
• When someone sneezes why do people say, ``Bless you''?
• How do you pronounce ``joie de vivre''? What is its meaning?
• People tend to say, ``the media is''. Shouldn't it be ``the media are''?
• What is the difference between ``a few'' and ``few''?
• What is the meaning of the expression ``to carry coals to Newcastle''?
• What is the opposite of Utopia?
• WHAT IS the origin of ``red tape''?
• How do you address a woman who is divorced?
• What is the difference ``battle'' and ``war''?
• What is the difference between ``its'' and ``it's''?
• How do you pronounce the word xenophobia?
• Newsreaders say ``main stories''. Is it OK to use ``stories'' when referring to news?
• In one of the episodes in ``Law and Order'' the detectives kept saying ``DOA''. What do the initials stand for?
• Is it O.K to use the word ``thrice'' to mean ``three times''?
• WHAT IS the meaning of the idiom ``to bite the dust''?
• How do you pronounce the word ``hooch''?
• What is the meaning of ``snail mail''?
• What is the difference between ``flats'' and ``apartments''?
• What is the meaning of ``ad nauseam''?
• How do you pronounce the final `s' in ``Charles's''?
• Is it OK to say ``The Chief Minister is in favour with Sumalatha''?
• Why is the television called the ``idiot box''?
• What is the meaning and origin of ``not be up to scratch''?
• What is the question tag to be used for ``I am a boy''?
• What is the meaning of ``carte blanche''?
• Is it OK to say, ``Australia's Northern Territory passed an euthanasia law''?
• How do you pronounce ``Seoul'', the capital of South Korea?
• What is the difference between ``translation'' and ``transliteration''?
• Is it OK to say ``The whole building shivers when a train goes past''?