[OT] Installing Linux fonts

[Richmond]

On 06/17/2010 11:23 PM, Peter Alcibiades wrote:
> It might be something to do with subjunctives - English does have them,
> though they are hard to recognize.
>
> "I want that you give me that apple". that seems to be OK if a little old
> fashioned and stilted.  "I want that he obey his teacher"  (not, that he
> obeys).  Its a bit like je veux que tu ailles a la poste.
>
> Better to avoid the problem by using the infinitive. "I want you to give"
> "I want him to obey".  Not he, of course, him.
>
> Richmond as an EFL guru will know the proper answer to this....
>    

As "an EFL guru" I would start by saying that I think that is a misuse 
and abuse
of the word 'guru' . . .  :)

Also, there is a difference between Native English and EFL; the latter 
tending increasingly
to focus on Communicative Competence rather than Prescriptive 
Grammatical niceties.

I never, ever worry about "whom" as it is already half gone,

and as a native speaker I continually catch myself saying "If I was you" 
instead
of "If I were you". From the point of view of a prescriptivist I am wrong;
but, Hey, why don't we all revert to Anglo-Saxon (which is bad Northern 
Germano-Danish)?
Walk down a street in, say, Swindon, and I wonder how many people use
the "if I were you" structure - probably none.

I have never heard anybody say "I want that you give me that apple"; it 
sounds
like somebody trying to fake 18th century English (and botching it) or 
something
from some odd dialect. I would always favour "I want you to give".

"I wist that Thou givest me that apple" micht dae fae some sonsy loon 
fae oot a time-machine,
but isnae mensefu the noo.