Little confused

Question

Hi
Consulting this part of the forum, General English questions and help, I find different answers and different points of view for the same question. I use to fix in my mind the Woodward's and Hitchhiker's answers as they are the mods and the English native speakers although it's very interesting to read all of addings and one can learn a lot, I even dared to answer once a question myself (it was related to a fixed thing, phonetic) but, I can't help, little confused sometimes.

Kitkattail · Accepted Answer

Isn't it great when you have no idea whom to trust?

What in particular is confusing you?

Elena · Answer

Kit, it was confusing for me 'especially/specially', 'Passive of Perfect Progressive Tenses?',
'Oh please, you're going to give me a swelled head', 'Grammar (using the 'ing')' and maybe more.
But I trust, no problem

Kitkattail · Answer

The verdicts:
Especially/specially: We don't seem to agree on this one. You have a right to be confused.
Passive of Perfect Progressive Tenses: No such tense exists.
Oh Please, you're going to give me a swelled head: The person is expressing modesty. I suppose the confusion there is my fault; I merely meant to suggest that the modesty might be false.
Grammar (using the "ing"): Nobody really understood the question, so nobody knows what to answer.

Woodward · Answer

Hi Elena,
We are the mods but it doesn't mean that we know everything. English is great in that there are many different ways of expressing yourself both formally and informally. There are many regional differences too that add some flavour to this English mix. I have been corrected (and shot down) a number of times but at the same I appreciate it because I also learn something new about how they say things in some other part of the world. There are other teachers out there who have all learned different ways with different upbringings and themselves also having had different teachers, some stricter than others. You will also notice that in some grammar books there will be some differences in word/grammar usage too.

English is an evolving language and it is going to become very interesting in the next years as more and more people use it. It's like with your native Spanish Elena. Is there only one type of Spanish? Does someone from Spain use different words/grammar from someone that lives in Chile or in Mexico? In Chile the 'vosotros' form is not used. The same with Portuguese from Portugal and that of Brazil. The grammar is quite different.
So don't worry about who's correct or not. Maybe they are only different ways of saying the same thing.
Remember to feel free to answer questions when you like. Everyone can learn from this.

Elena · Answer

Thanks Kitkattail for your concise veredicts

Feeling more secure here.

Thanks Woodward, I understand, ok.

These answers of you both bring to my mind another interesting thing, psychological issues, how the answers are tinged with the personality but this belongs to another section of the forum, see you there, ok?

Kitkattail · Answer

I look forward to hearing about it.
I also think answers are tinged with mood and time of day.

I am much more verbose at night, for example. It's weird.

Elena · Answer

Kit, do you like this title 'How to trace the personality of the posters through their writtings'? And also, is it  correct English?

Elena · Answer

I changed my mind, tracing is not the aim.

Maj · Answer

Seriously, I think it is a great idea.

Kitkattail · Answer

A fabulous idea. Except "writing" has only one "t."
It's kind of like physiognomy. But... graphiognomy?

Little confused

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