grammar

[Matthew Hunt]

On Sat, May 31, 2003 at 08:41:38AM +1000, Sue Blake wrote:

> I'm not sure. His English is otherwise excellent, but it could be
> his second language, and I'd rather not reveal his identity.

Maybe it's just a personal quirk.  One of my old roommates, a native
speaker of English and perfectly bright person, would consistently use
the word "nevertheless" to mean exactly the opposite of what it should.
He would say things like, "I was hungry; nevertheless I ate a snack."

> The correctness or otherwise, and national differences, is
> something we should sort out for its own sake.

Perhaps it is best just to replace "in case" with another choice of
phrase.

-- 
Matthew Hunt <mph at astro.caltech.edu> * Clearly there are more things in the
http://www.pobox.com/~mph/           * heavens than anyone anticipated. -enp