[TopAce]

I have some questions relating to English grammar and usage of words. I would appreciate if you, natives, would help me.

What is the correct British spelling for the russian monarch? Tzar or Czar?
Is there a difference between the to plan to do and the to plan on doing structures?
It is not clear for me what the plural form of fish is. I saw some of you writing fishes and in Serious Sam I saw a sentence something like  Watch out for fishes'. What contradicts this is that I learnt and read the the word fish has no plural form.
Is it correct to say 'I performed well over difficult circumstances'?
Can the Brtish spell realize as realise?
What does it mean to take five?
Can I use court-martial as a verb? I mean, is it correct to say 'He was court-martialled because he denied direct orders'?
Is there a difference between 'I am arranging a party' and 'I am organizing a party'?
In Freespace, the verb Bestow is followed by upon, but the Cambridge Learner's dictionary says Bestow should be followed by on. Which one do you think is the correct version or is there a difference?
Is it really informal to say 'it is a bit too much'?
I am unsure about the usage of the verb to splay. Is it correct to write that 'I splayed him?' or should I say 'I splayed his legs?
Is it correct to say 'The part he took in the programme was pivotal'. How often is the word 'pivotal' used and how formal is it?
If somebody's luck surprises me, what is grammatically correct to say: 'What good luck!' or 'What a good luck!'?

Thank you for the help in advance.

[Black Wolf]

Czar

Not really. It changes the rest of the sentence slightly. eg. I plan on flying to London, as opposed to I am planning on flying to London.

Fish is its own plural - fishes is generally used for vague comedic value.

No. Performed well under difficult conditions or in difficult circumstances.

Yes.

Yes.

Technically yes, in practice, not really.

I've always said upon. Bestow and upon are both fairly formal words, so they go well together.

Not really.

The second is more correct.

First.

[TopAce]

Thank you for the help. You still left two questions unanswered though.

[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by TopAce
I have some questions relating to English grammar and usage of words. I would appreciate if you, natives, would help me.

What is the correct British spelling for the russian monarch? Tzar or Czar?
Not sure. I've always used Tzar.
Is there a difference between the to plan to do and the to plan on doing structures?
Not sure what you mean here, but I don't think so. I could say "I plan to do whatever" or "I plan on doing whatever" and mean the same thing.
It is not clear for me what the plural form of fish is. I saw some of you writing fishes and in Serious Sam I saw a sentence something like  Watch out for fishes'. What contradicts this is that I learnt and read the the word fish has no plural form.
The plural of fish is fish ie. "There is a fish"; "There are three fish" etc.
Is it correct to say 'I performed well over difficult circumstances'?
No. You'd be understood, but the correct word would be "under".
Can the Brtish spell realize as realise?
Yes, we do. The Yanks changed it for some reason...
What does it mean to take five?
It means to take a break for five minutes (or a short amount of time).
Can I use court-martial as a verb? I mean, is it correct to say 'He was court-martialled because he denied direct orders'?
Yes.
Is there a difference between 'I am arranging a party' and 'I am organizing a party'?
Nothing significant AFAIK
In Freespace, the verb Bestow is followed by upon, but the Cambridge Learner's dictionary says Bestow should be followed by on. Which one do you think is the correct version or is there a difference?
"Upon" means pretty much the same thing as "on". It's a more "old-fashioned" word - more formal.
Is it really informal to say 'it is a bit too much'?
Informal would be something like "It's a bit much" or "It's a bit too much". Shortening words is usually a sign of informality.
I am unsure about the usage of the verb to splay. Is it correct to write that 'I splayed him?' or should I say 'I splayed his legs?
The second. "Splaying" would usually invlove more than one "thing" - in this case, legs.
Is it correct to say 'The part he took in the programme was pivotal'. How often is the word 'pivotal' used and how formal is it?
It's not really a formal word, so you could use it for anything where you were describing something as vital/very important. That sentence works, but you'd be better off saying "He played a pivotal role in the programme". It fits together better.
If somebody's luck surprises me, what is grammatically correct to say: 'What good luck!' or 'What a good luck!'?
"What good luck!" is correct. Luck isn't like, say, an object or a colour or whatever.

Thank you for the help in advance.

Hope that helps! I'm not a linguist, but I like to think I'm pretty good at this kind of thing.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by TopAce
I have some questions relating to English grammar and usage of words. I would appreciate if you, natives, would help me.

What is the correct British spelling for the russian monarch? Tzar or Czar?
Czar.  I think either can be considered appropriate, however.

Is there a difference between the to plan to do and the to plan on doing structures?
The former is more specific; i.e. it's setting down a specifc plan.  The latter - planning on doing - is more along the lines that 'I will do this, but I don't know exactly how yet'.

It is not clear for me what the plural form of fish is. I saw some of you writing fishes and in Serious Sam I saw a sentence something like  Watch out for fishes'. What contradicts this is that I learnt and read the the word fish has no plural form.
It's fish; or more correctly 'watch out for the fish'.  Serious Sam was made by croatians, hence this error.  I think fishes can be used informally, though (or rather 'fishies')

Is it correct to say 'I performed well over difficult circumstances'?
Yes- but it doesn't have an opposite meaning to 'under difficult circumstances'.

 In this case, "over difficult circumstances" would mean over a number of sets of difficult circumstances (such as 'over time)

(Disagree with BW on this one)

Can the Brtish spell realize as realise?
Yep.  Many American English words use z instead of s, as well as other differences (such as color vs colour)

What does it mean to take five?
Take a break; i.e. from take five minutes/seconds to catch your breath (NB: five in this context is really just an appropriare amount of time)

Can I use court-martial as a verb? I mean, is it correct to say 'He was court-martialled because he denied direct orders'?
Yes

Is there a difference between 'I am arranging a party' and 'I am organizing a party'?
Nope.

In Freespace, the verb Bestow is followed by upon, but the Cambridge Learner's dictionary says Bestow should be followed by on. Which one do you think is the correct version or is there a difference?
No difference.  I think 'bestow upon' may be considered more formal or 'old-fashioned' usage by some people

Is it really informal to say 'it is a bit too much'?
No; it's actually a bit more formal than normal use, normally you'd hear "it's" rather than "it is"

I am unsure about the usage of the verb to splay. Is it correct to write that 'I splayed him?' or should I say 'I splayed his legs?
The latter

Is it correct to say 'The part he took in the programme was pivotal'. How often is the word 'pivotal' used and how formal is it?
Yes.  Pivotal.... it's not a formal word, I hear it used all the time; I'm not aware there is alternative informal variant for it's correct use

If somebody's luck surprises me, what is grammatically correct to say: 'What good luck!' or 'What a good luck!'?

What good luck

Thank you for the help in advance.

EDIT; nuts, too late  HTH anyways.

[pyro-manic]

Bwahahahahahahaaaaaa...

[karajorma]

Originally posted by TopAce
I am unsure about the usage of the verb to splay. Is it correct to write that 'I splayed him?' or should I say 'I splayed his legs?

Since you're presumably not gay and equally presumably not a serial killer you shouldn't be using either

[Liberator]

Originally posted by TopAce
I have some questions relating to English grammar and usage of words. I would appreciate if you, natives, would help me.

What is the correct British spelling for the russian monarch? Tzar or Czar?

Czar is the spelling according to Russian translators

Is there a difference between the to plan to do and the to plan on doing structures?

In the given sentence, "to plan to do" is a poor usage of the language, even if it is technically correct
It is not clear for me what the plural form of fish is. I saw some of you writing fishes and in Serious Sam I saw a sentence something like  Watch out for fishes'. What contradicts this is that I learnt and read the the word fish has no plural form.
either, it's kind of like "ain't", "fish" is the proper usage to describe multiple fish, but it really depends on where you learned to talk

Is it correct to say 'I performed well over difficult circumstances'?

What else would you say?

Can the Brtish spell realize as realise?

They can, but it would still be wrong.

What does it mean to take five?

To take five is to take a short break, usually around 5 mins, though the length is really indeterminate.  It decends from a theatrical origin I believe

Can I use court-martial as a verb? I mean, is it correct to say 'He was court-martialled because he denied direct orders'?

It's can be either a verb or a noun.

Is there a difference between 'I am arranging a party' and 'I am organizing a party'?

Either is correct, but organizing sounds more like you are on the ground taking action to make it happen, where arranging is less dynamic.

In Freespace, the verb Bestow is followed by upon, but the Cambridge Learner's dictionary says Bestow should be followed by on. Which one do you think is the correct version or is there a difference?

Again, it depends on the dialect you were raised with

I am unsure about the usage of the verb to splay. Is it correct to write that 'I splayed him?' or should I say 'I splayed his legs?

"Splay" is a third-person verb as in "his legs splayed apart uncomfortably as he hit the ground.  It doesn't really work in first person.

Is it correct to say 'The part he took in the programme was pivotal'. How often is the word 'pivotal' used and how formal is it?

Once again, dialect dependant

If somebody's luck surprises me, what is grammatically correct to say: 'What good luck!' or 'What a good luck!'?

"Wow!" is more correct

[Petrarch of the VBB]

It's not a case of Czar or Tzar. It's Czar ir Tsar. I've never seen it with a Tz, only a Cz or Ts.
The three history textbooks I'm using this year all spell it as Tsar.

[Ace]

Personally I think Czar is more accurate as the word is supposed to be related to 'caesar' (emperor).

[Flipside]

It's spelt Tzar in London, but you'll get away with anything for that particular one, opinions vary....

As far as 'pivotal' is concerned, it's correct in the English language, but not all that commonly used, you'd probably do better with 'vital'. It's not exactly the same meaning, but close enough to project the meaning.

[Knight Templar]

Originally posted by Ace
Personally I think Czar is more accurate as the word is supposed to be related to 'caesar' (emperor).

Yes, but the actual russian letter that begins the word Tsar (it looks like a U with a tail, it's called "ts" ) translates and sounds like "ts", not "Cz".

[Ford Prefect]

"Splay" is a third-person verb as in "his legs splayed apart uncomfortably as he hit the ground. It doesn't really work in first person.

It has nothing to do with point of view. A verb is a verb. The only thing that the point of view changes is the way in which it's conjugated.

[Bobboau]

how do people come up with these bull**** ways of spelling/pronounceing words from other nation, it oftine looks like there is some sort of process, but it just never seems to make sence over all.

[Flipside]

It's just transcience of dialect, words change as they move, color neighbor etc are prime examples. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Tzar' 'Tsar' and 'Csar' and any other number of spellings for it have been used over the years.

[Liberator]

Originally posted by Bobboau
how do people come up with these bull**** ways of spelling/pronounceing words from other nation, it oftine looks like there is some sort of process, but it just never seems to make sence over all.

Says the guy that spells "often" as "oftine"

[phreak]

this is the first time in my life i've heard the word "splay"

[Flipside]

It's one of those words that you know what it means, but you aren't quite sure why you know what it means

[TopAce]

Is there a difference between handcuffs and shackles?

[Setekh]

"Shackles" is a more general term. Shackles could be around your feet, as well as your hands. Certainly handcuffs are a kind of shackles, though.