Are there words that specify that a number, say 600 was or is to be pronounced 'six double zero ' vs 'six zero zero'? How about six double oh vs six oh oh? Would that be the same word? How about when you are spelling something, e.g. 'double el' rather than 'el el' for 'll'. Also, should you say 'capital double el' or 'double capital el' for 'LL'?
121901
501 can be pronounced 'five hundred one' or 'five zero one'. How do I tell someone how it was pronounced without saying the number. The best I've come up with is 'normal style' vs 'zip code style'. How about some proper terms? What about the distinction between 'five zero one' style and 'five oh one' style? I know this bit is a long shot but what the heck.
17946
Possible Duplicate:          Is there any guidance on the usage of doubled consonants, particularly L, in British versus US English? For example 'Travelled' v. 'Traveled', 'Cancelled' v. 'Canceled', but then 'Enrolment' v. 'Enrollment'. Then there's 'Travelling' v. 'Traveling' etc.  In each case I've put what I consider to be the British standard first.  Just wondering if there's any consistency, for example 'in present and past participles ending in L the British usage is to add a second L'?
44246
Kindly, what are your thoughts on the following sentences:        The maximum number of wordbooks (%d) have been saved.   The maximum number of wordbooks (%d) has been saved.      My opinion is that (1) is more appropriate as "save" relates to wordbooks (a plural noun) and "The ... number" is some kind of determiner.  The dissenting opinion is that "The number" is obviously singular, and the "wordbooks" are subsidiary.  I agree that (2) is grammatically correct but I maintain it implies merely a single number was saved, not the wordbooks themselves.
75395
Initially, my question was: is "focussed" or "focused" the correct past tense of "focus", but since this applies to a lot of words, I would like to generalize and ask: is there supposed to be a rule when to double the consonant?
55892
I'm trying to figure out if there is a specific rule behind the word "cancel" that would cause "cancellation" to have two L's, but "canceled" and "canceling" to have only one (in the US).    I understand the rules are very loose when it comes to double L's in English, and I have read several posts on here talking about "canceled" and "canceling" (vs "cancelled" and "cancelling"), but my specific question is more about the spelling of "cancellation".    - they do NOT mention cancelation with one "L"  - they do seem to have cancelation listed with one "L" Microsoft Word marks "cancelation" as an invalid word Same with the spell checker in Firefox   So my question is: is there a reason or rule why in US English, "cancellation" seems to have two L's (to most dictionaries), while "canceled" and "canceling" does not?
4631
I was in a conversation with my senior engineer where he kept on insisting that we can use plural when we write down any unit. I argued that it is not the 'common' practice or even throughout my whole academic career (unfortunately) I haven't found any instance where there was any plural unit used in the text books. He argued that if I said that it was not correct then it should have a good reason for that.  When I searched for this topic I couldn't come to any conclusive decision. Such as  thread and the other links those have been referred there (some leads to English.SE). These answers gave me the impression that it is grammatically acceptable provided the right circumstances.  But I felt that it would be rather ambiguous to accept plurals on scientific and engineering notations.  For example we were talking about output rate of a boiler which is measured in $\mathrm{kg/hr}$. My senior said that it is okay if anyone writes $\mathrm{kgs/hr}$.  To me it looks ambiguous. If anyone writes $\mathrm{s}$ after $\mathrm{kg}$ it may give a plural sense but as well it may refer to second also. Moreover if anyone argues that this is acceptable in some cases (like $\mathrm{kgs/hr}$) then what would be the yard stick to find out accepted cases? For instance can we add $\mathrm{s}$ in $\mathrm{m/s}$ or $\mathrm{km/hr}$ like $\mathrm{ms/s}$ or $\mathrm{kms/hr}$?  There is , which has this .     the length of the laser is $5\ \mathrm{m}$ but not: the length of the laser is five meters   But I want to have more conclusive answer to which one is acceptable i.e. $\mathrm{kg/hr}$ or $\mathrm{kgs/hr}$ (or other similar instances).
123607
When two phrases are pronounced alike but have different spelling and meaning, can we call them homophones?  e.g. "ice-cream" and "I scream", "nitrate" and "night rate", "that's tough" and "that stuff".  Or is there another term for them?  What linguistic phenomenon distiguishes these near homophones?  I've checked the putative duplicate at  but it isn't exactly what I'm asking here.
74584
How do you say the mathematical function in English:     x^y (or xy)   For example, how do you say      2^16  (or 216)   I know ^ means 'power' or 'exponentiate', but that is the name of the operation, not how you pronounce its use.  If y = 2, it is 'x squared', y=3 then 'x cubed'. What if y is some other arbitrary number?
78634
What's the meaning of 90-plus? More than 90? If so, please tell me more ways to say "more than 90". Thank you!
70529
I usually say “It’s a quarter past” (for instance) “five”.  But I think I’ve heard (or read) “It’s quarter past ...”, too, with no indefinite article: is that correct?  Which is more common (if both constructions are in use)?  Is the omission of the article more colloquial (informal, popular, whatever)?  Is there a difference between British and American English?  Thank you very much.
116698
I confess! Being a non-native speaker, I struggle a lot especially when I come across a new word. And I wonder how do native speakers pronounce perfectly even though they read the word for the very first time. There should be some rule/technique? I'm not sure.  Let's take a case.   If I see a word having 'ch' for the very first time, how do I guess it? Remember, I don't have dictionary. Nor do I have access to this great site when I encounter that word. For example,   Take the word 'chariot'. Being a non-native with quite limited knowledge of orthography, I know that 'ch' is pronounced as in 'Charles'  But then, imagine, I came across the word 'charade'. Undoubtedly, for me, it is 'ch (as in Charles)-re-d-s'. But then, actually, 'ch' there is 'sh' (as in Shane).   It's not just 'ch' but it goes for 'g' as well. 'G' as in 'goat' or 'g' as in 'gymnastic'. Is there any source that teaches how to pronounce a letter if it is placed after/before certain letter? Is there any such rule? The one I remember is when a word ends with 'mb', you don't pronounce 'b'. 'Bomb', 'Comb', 'Tomb' and .      There are a few more words that add another nail in the coffin of my pronunciation complexity!      penis (pee, and not as in 'pen')  asthma (no 'th' pronounced)  Dengue (dengeee)  and many more...
38625
I remember reading somewhere that if a unit is abbreviated as one character, there must not be a space between the number and the unit (e.g., 5m, 26K). If the unit is abbreviated as two or more Characters, there must be a space between the number and the unit (e.g., "10 km", "USD 5").   Can you please help me find the source again? Is this recommendation correct?
39942
Why is “cannot” spelled as one word whereas other similar constructions such as “do not,” “will not,” “shall not,” “may not” and “must not” are spelled as two words (unless they are contracted as “don’t” and so on)?  (I know that languages are not always logical, so I would not be too surprised if there is no known reason for this.  But I am asking this in the hope that there is some explanation.)
80449
How do you know when to use singular or plural nouns if they're used as adjectives?  i.e.     32-bit computer vs 32-bits computer?      teacher union vs teachers union?      wedding planner vs weddings planner?      sport medicine vs sports medicine?      student council vs students council?   Which one is correct?
49633
I'm wondering why I need to say scissors instead of just 'scissor'. Are there any rules about it?  I would think that I only have one scissor, meaning it would be singular and not plural. (That's at least how it is in my native language.)  This would only be one scissor in Danish.    Can anyone tell me why it needs to be plural?
29727
This is purely a curiosity, but I'm fascinated by mid-word pluralization, even if the word in question is a compound word.  For example, passersby or standersby.  No others have occurred to me. Can you provide other examples, or a link to a resource that enumerates them?  I'm particularly interested in compounds that do not include spaces or hyphens.
68948
I would like to ask how people who are familiar with English interpret these sentences regarding the nouns that can be both count and noncount nouns.  (1) I have to make more cake/cakes to offer a wide variety of bakery products for my own business.  (2) France is famously known for having more cheese/cheeses than there are days in the year.  My foreign teachers went for plural noun in (1), but they chose the bare form for (2). I have them chose only one form for each item. For me (I'm Thai), I just want some explanations because both items represent "a variety of sth", so why these two are treated differently.