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Originally posted by sahara:
I guess where I get confused is that I think of "The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence:" for "effect" and "To have an influence on:" for "affect" to be almost indistinguishable.

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Originally posted by sab39:
The difference between "effect" and "affect" is very simple in fact: one's a noun, one's a verb!

If it affects you, then it has an effect on you.

Dong ma? :)

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Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Very welcome, Saraha! Always happy to help. Yes, they seem very similar. Those trip even my mom up at times.

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Originally posted by DesktopHippie:
Thanks, PhoenixRose! Your reely good to correct our grammer like this. Their are just to many silly mistakes being made these days. Its a real annoyance. Noone should be forced too read threw badly written posts. Hear's hopeing all our post's will be grammer perfect from now on!

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Are you mocking me?

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Originally posted by mazaen:
As Mal is standing, he looks outside the window of Serenity and into the blackness and the stars. He remembers looking up to the same stars when he has been in the war. On one night in the war, he has fought with Zoe against the alliance. When Zoe and Mal have been fighting, alliance planes have flown over Zoe and Mal's position. The planes have shot at Mal's troops, lasers placing colourful stripes over the landscape.

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Sneaking quietly into the cargo bay was easy since Simon had taken to sharing Kaylee’s bunk, but opening the box would be tricky, but she wasn’t a genius for nothing.

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:
I got one. I hate to pick on Gwenfrewi, but she used this sentence in her Mal Love-Bot piece, which is otherwise excellent.

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Sneaking quietly into the cargo bay was easy since Simon had taken to sharing Kaylee’s bunk, but opening the box would be tricky, but she wasn’t a genius for nothing.

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Shouldn't put 2 dependent clauses , both starting with " but", in the same sentence.

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Originally posted by sab39:

The difference between "effect" and "affect" is very simple in fact: one's a noun, one's a verb!

If it affects you, then it has an effect on you.

Dong ma? :)

Stuart.

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Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
It’s = it is. As in "It’s a crying shame that Firefly was cancelled." Also used for it has, as in "It’s rained every day this week."
Its = possessive term. As in "The Alliance retracted its statements."

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Originally posted by Darkfly:
thanks PhoenixRose your the best.

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Originally posted by Platonist:
I assumed "nium", from Latin, (they liked their vowels)

as in millennium or plutonium

I've seen the "num" also used... as in aluminum

good catch

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
OK, I was so fascinated by this that I looked it up on dictionary.com:

—Usage note The spelling blonde is still widely used for the noun that specifies a woman or girl with fair hair: The blonde with the baby in her arms is my anthropology professor. Some people object to this as an unnecessary distinction, preferring blond for all persons: My sister is thinking of becoming a blond for a while. As an adjective, the word is more usually spelled blond in reference to either sex (an energetic blond girl; two blond sons), although the form blonde is occasionally still used of a female: the blonde model and her escort. The spelling blond is almost always used for the adjective describing hair, complexion, etc.: His daughter has blond hair and hazel eyes.

So it sounds like there is a gender involved in the spelling (who knew? I didn't!) but it's not a hard and fast rule.


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I'm the president. I don't need to listen.

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
I know nothing about RPG, but here's my take:

I've always thought the word was pronounced with four syllables: lond-in-i-um. Without the i, it's lond-di-num, which sounds a lot like laudanum, which is an opiate. That seems weird to me.

Except... I just checked the Serenity the Pilot script and it's spelled without the i. Oh my stars - have I been wrong all this time?

How do you guys pronouce it?

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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

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Originally posted by Platonist:
Actually it was "aluminum" first, as it is in the US today- Al on the table.

The British changed it to "aluminium" to align the spelling with the other element spellings, such as sodium.

Yes... a difference, but not a distortion.

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Originally posted by hobbleit:
both spellings were put forward by the same man. The Europeans chose Aluminium and the Americans chose to use Aluminum.

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Originally posted by 2x2:
From what I have discovered, the script was a TYPO... the proper spelling is 'Londinium', like the Roman city in Britain.

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Thanks 2x2! That's a relief - not the not being wrong part as much as that "Londinum" would just be annoying.

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Originally posted by mal4prez:

But speaking of punctuation (I know, no one was LOL!) has anyone else noticed how JK Rowling uses colons? I don't have the book here for a quote, but she'd use them like this:

Harry ran into the trees: The shadows were very dark.

Kind of like semi-colons, but with the second part capitalized. Is this an English (like England-English) thing? I don't recall seeing it before.

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Originally posted by 2x2:
This is an excellent thread!

And since I saw way up at the top a reply about character names, I would like to ask if anyone can confirm the proper spelling of the planet Londinum / Londinium

Acording to the RPG, the planet is actually Londinum - no extra 'i'. There is a map of the worlds in the RPG that shows this spelling.

This image also appears in the Serenity Visual Companion, however, the spelling in the write up has it as Londinium, with the second 'i'.

I haven't read the novelization yet, but I was wondering if there are any other instances out there to give us a clear indication of which is the correct spelling?

I've been using Londinum because I first saw it in the RPG, and have been thinking most people have been using Londinium in error. Now that I've found it in the Visual Companion as well, I'd rather be sure before I put my foot in it pointing it out to anyone.

Anyone?

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
But speaking of punctuation (I know, no one was LOL!) has anyone else noticed how JK Rowling uses colons? I don't have the book here for a quote, but she'd use them like this:

Harry ran into the trees: The shadows were very dark.

Kind of like semi-colons, but with the second part capitalized. Is this an English (like England-English) thing? I don't recall seeing it before.

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Originally posted by Eloisa:
It's not standard UK English. Probably an idiosyncrasy that went uncorrected by her editor - I know of one who always puts four dots in ellipsis instead of three...(.)

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On the word-construction topic, I am convinced that "anymore" is an acceptable word. My flatmate is convinced that it has to be written "any more". Any advice?

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Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Amd I didn't notice any colon use like that in Deahtly Hallows. Can you give me a page number?

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