English language's question

[Gurm]

Drizzt,

To continue...

We is the personal plural. The plural form of "I". Hence, as a plural, you use "were".

We _were_ old, but then we drank from the fountain of youth.

You, whether singular OR plural, is always treated as plural.

For example...

"Drizzt, I think that you WERE an alcoholic. In fact, you still ARE!"

Or...

You damn heathen Europeans WERE oppressing us here in the "colonies", but now you ARE a second-rate world power.

- Gurm

[Drizzt]

10x, more clear now.

[Drizzt]

Ok, next question (I'll try to keep them all in this thread)
You typed:
"Can you blame them? They're having an AMAZING amount of tourism generated off this movie. "

My brain tell me that I'd have used "generated by this movie. ", so:
What's the difference between off and by in this case? When use one and when the other?

[Gurm]

Off is colloquial and not particularly good English in this case.

"I'm living OFF the proceeds of the sale."

That's a colloquial way to say "I am surviving BY MEANS OF the proceeds of the sale."

English does this a lot. However, in the example YOU cited, BY or FROM would in fact be better. Off is overused.

- Gurm

[dave m]

Yes, I'd have said from the movie, rather than off. The distinction is in how direct the association of the generation of tourism is to the movie. If you say "from (or off) the movie" you're saying that the tourism has been generated indirectly, presumably as a result of people seeing the movie. To say "by the movie" says that the movie has directly generated tourism by itself.
HTH (and is correct)

Dave

Edit, Gurm beat me to it

[az]

HTH?

Oh, BTW, I feel I'm using too many commas (in german, "kommata" would be the more correct plural, would it be "commata" in english?). For example, does "too" need a leading comma, if used at the end of a sentence, like in "I have problems with the english language, too"?

AZ

[dave m]

Az, HTH: Hope This Helps

Dave

[az]

Ah, thanks

AZ

[Gurm]

Az,

Yes, that comma is appropriate.

My general rule (and this is VERY broad) is that if you would pause when speaking the sentence out loud, a comma is appropriate. There are other specific rules.

Some examples of wrong/right usage:

WRONG: "Although, many people have bought Bonzi Buddy it still remains a crappy product."

RIGHT: "Although many people have bought Bonzi Buddy, it still remains a crappy product."

WRONG: "I think, that you should see a psychiatrist for that emotional problem in case it gets out of hand again."

RIGHT: "I think you should see a psychiatrist for that emotional problem, in case it gets out of hand again."

- Gurm

[az]

Thank you

I never knew the german rules for commas, always used my feeling - and it has almost never lead me wrong.

I use the same tactic for english - be it spelling or grammar - and I think it works quite well

AZ

[GNEP]

Spot on there Gurm. Now another little oddity - often in print you see some words italicised for emphasis. Is it me, or do they quite often get the wrong word in italics?

I can't think of specific examples off the top of my head, but it always seem that the people writing/printing these sentences get the word immediately after or before the one that I would have put in italics. (A bit like that really )

[Drizzt]

Just a side note: no one Italian would ever dream to write its text all tilted...

[Gurm]

Oh c'mon. Italians never used italics? Please. I've read the scores to opera.

- Gurm