Rock_Steady

That's bloody amazing!

Not sure if easy start would dry out the internals ?

Paint work on your zed looks flawless. Nice!

600 quid, for what is basically a map. Madness.

Not sure if it's the same model but a good friend of mine bought a new Nissan something-or-other that is like an SUV/MPV. An asthmatic 1.6 version. He said the performance is awful and it's about the same size as a Ford Focus on the inside. Impulse buy. Perhaps yours it not the same model but he said it was deceiving just how small it actually is. Just mentioning it as you say you want it as a family mini-bus.

Merry Xmas/Exmas/Chrisssssmusss/Christmas

I can remember when i put my Gt-Four up for sale and at the time, my model was making 3k tops. A Carlos Sainz might go for a little more. I put up mine for 5k due to it being completely rebuilt in every respect in and out. Lots of messages saying " I'm interested but you're asking too much for it" Or " i like it but you'll never get that for it, you're mad!" To which i replied "don't bid or buy it then" I got some pretty dumb offers/Px. Someone said they'd give me 2.5k and their Daihatsu Charade Turbo (which was a non runner). I told him "it's not attractive to offer half the price and a problem for an immaculate car that works and doesn't need to be worked on". I sold it for the asking price 48 hours later. Someone came, they looked, they drove it, they bought it. I would've sat on it if it didn't go. As some say, everybody wants something for nothing but if something is nice and they want it, then someone will buy it.

Ah! apologies. Then yes you're right, i don't think grammar has been taught in schools in the UK for a long long time hence some pretty shoddy grammar spoken by natives. I wasn't taught grammar at school either. As you said, they are taught it on the continent though. Whether they stick to it or not is another question.

i'd say it's a bit casual compared to other languages, but construction rules are there such as verb patterns, question forms (QASI) or the opposite which would be indirect question forms. There are also dependent prepositions with verbs and adjectives, adjective order to describe someone or something, gerunds and infinitives, passives, adverbial clause, conditionals etc. They form a type of construction in the English language, if it were said wrong, we could understand an utterance, yet it wouldn't sound good.

BTW ( which is an abbreviation ) i enjoy being an arrogant tosser once in a while

I don't know what to say, I'm welling up! Rock, an acronym is an intialisation that becomes spoken as a word. As Coldel pointed out, NASA, because we say it as NASSER (not as En, Ay, Ess, Ay) is an acronym. If we said it as the sounds of the letters, it would be an initialisation, as HSBC (aych, ess, bee, see) is an initialisation. If we said HSBC as Huzbuk, then it would be an acronym. I'm not talking about the pronunciation of NASA, i'm talking about what qualifies an acronym compared to an abbreviation, i'll grant you they can over lap however, it still has to spell out a word that has meaning. NASA has no meaning in this current form as USA has no meaning as an abbreviation as they are not used as verbs or adjectives. It has no verb form or adjective form. Therefore it's just an abbreviation. An abbreviation is a catch-all term to mean any word that has been shortened in any way, be it by initialisation (and therefore potentially an acronym), or removal of some letters in favour of an apostrophe to make the word shorter to say or write. Examples: An abbreviation which is an initialisation, which is also an acronym is NASA. An abbreviation which is an initialisation but not an acronym is HSBC An abbreviation that is not an initialisation (and therefore cannot be an acronym either) is lb for pounds, or Dr. for doctor. This does not change the definition of an acronym, and the clue is in the greek of the word. 'onym' is a name, think of syn'onym' direct translation from Greek 'like name'. So an acronym is a an initialisation that has become the name of a noun (not necessarily a Proper name, not to be confused), whereas an initialisation is always an abbreviation, but if expressed only as the characters is not a 'name' of a noun, it's just letters. Hence HSBC could only be an acronym if we said it as 'HuzBuk', it is then an initialisation that represents the name of a brand new word 'huzbuk', and is therefore an acronym. All acronyms started off as initialisations until someone decided how to pronounce them as a complete word and then spread that usage until it became so common that the initialisation became an acronym representing the name of an organisation or object. As you see, it is actually ALL about the pronunciation. Words from other languages used in English may not always have the same or original meaning of where they have come from. Take the word Idiot for example, in Greek that meant anyone who wasn't a politician. Does it mean that now? No, quite the opposite. So using it to credit your point is debatable.

i suppose so

look at it this way. LASER which is an acronym is used as a verb. I want to laser this hair off my back, for example. Originally it was an abbreviation until it was used as a word to describe an action. RADAR is just an abbreviation as it's not used in the same way. SCUBA was an abbreviation but is now an acronym because it is used as a verb and an adjective. Maybe i should contact Oxford to tell them about their cavalier error but i'n not particularly bothered about it. Just because the Oxford dictionary says so doesn't make it gospel. Someone wrote that in, someone can make mistakes.

I don't know what to say, I'm welling up! Rock, an acronym is an intialisation that becomes spoken as a word. As Coldel pointed out, NASA, because we say it as NASSER (not as En, Ay, Ess, Ay) is an acronym. If we said it as the sounds of the letters, it would be an initialisation, as HSBC (aych, ess, bee, see) is an initialisation. If we said HSBC as Huzbuk, then it would be an acronym. I'm not talking about the pronunciation of NASA, i'm talking about what qualifies an acronym compared to an abbreviation, i'll grant you they can over lap however, it still has to spell out a word that has meaning. NASA has no meaning in this current form as USA has no meaning as an abbreviation as they are not used as verbs or adjectives. It has no verb form or adjective form. Therefore it's just an abbreviation.

Yes, it is a type of abbreviation, but NASA is not an acronym. Even if it is used as an example in the dictionary, it's still wrong. As i said, it has to spell out an actual word in use to be an acronym i.e. a verb

An acronym is the initial of every beginning letter that spells a word that is already in use, so NASA is not an acronym it's just an abbreviation as there is no verb " to nasa " for example. An acronym will be something like BASE jumping. Base is a word that's in use and has meaning in the language. Pronunciation is a pretty moot subject as there is no blanket accent for the UK. You'd be surprised at how people say things compared to how things are written. "Can you do me a favour" will sound more like "Kunya-do-meeya-favour" for lack of the use of Phonemes. Or at least in the south of the UK.

Well, the Japanese do say " Neesan"

the "mas" in Christmas is just pronounced with the schwa /É™/ it's the most common sound in English

if you say the beginning of a word with a vowel then the article is "an", no mater what the first letter is i.e. consonant of course

The likes are easy. My dislikes are: 1. Crap fans that break down at the drop of a hat. 2. Yes, the dipstick is a bit of a pain in the arse 3. How quickly it can get through a set of rear tyres 4. How it can drink oil like a kitchen sink does water 5. My wife complaining about how loud it is

i have noticed that it is young ladies in Renault Clios that tend to drive how they damn well like where i am. As if no one else is on the road at all and there are no road markings of any kind, no give way signs, no lines on junctions etc. Speed doesn't make a bad driver, nor does driving 10 mph below the limit, it's peoples' unawareness of others, who don't use their mirrors, who indicate too late or not at all that makes a dangerous driver more than anything else. That pisses me off to the maximus.

It's just the solenoid not making the full journey in the starter motor. If it happens again and doesn't start just get a screw driver and hammer, and give it a few light wacks to jolt it, and it should be fine for a while. It's probably the beginning of the end of it though. probably due to not getting enough amps. Corrosion inside and what not.

I think people may do it to zed drivers like any other, but only to hear that fantastic V6 pull away. i've had the same thing as everyone else who drives an iconic car. Some colonel bum cheddar pulls up to your bumper like Grace Jones and tries to park in your boot. I may have been bothered when i was younger but i just can be arsed these days to blow someone into the weeds and think " HA! , that'll learn ya " Just let them carry on. They'll have a great accident one day thanks to their anti-social driving style and that'll be the end of their precious Subaru/Evo/MPS/ST/RS or whatever the hell it is.

i take it this is not a tracking issue then?

I hope the Recaro is more comfy than my Cobras. They're awful!