I’m happy to see so many well articulated and heartfelt expressions of encouragement to those users of this list who are not proficient in English. Of course it’s the message which is important, not the medium. This group is not a literary discussion group, we’re an email group. And email itself imposes its own peculiar limitations on the expression of written English. For me, this is a rich and endlessly fascinating topic, one much too developed to discuss adequately here. But I see some interesting parallels between language study and the study of plants. Just as there are those who simply want to know what the rules of grammar are rather than know why the rules are the way they are, so there are others who just want to know what the right name for a plant is rather than know why that is the right name. For those who just want to know what the rules of grammar are, there are prescriptive grammars out there to answer their questions. For those who just want to know what the right name is, there are resources which try to provide that information. There is a dirty little secret about the grammar of English which most English speakers seem not to be aware of: there is no one universally or even generally accepted grammar for English. Although there is widespread agreement about the essential basics, and there are style manuals to address the various fripperies, anyone taking a serious interest in grammar eventually reaches the point where they realize that the prescriptive approach (telling people what is right or wrong) is not really up to the job. At that point, many people discover the joys of descriptive grammar (telling it like it is so-to-speak) and ever after regard prescriptive grammar as sophomoric albeit necessary. How many of you know about The Elements of Style by Strunk and White? For those of you who don’t know it, it is the book to which generations of Americans looked for guidance in matters relating to successful writing. It turns out that The Elements of Style is responsible for promoting a major misunderstanding of the use of the passive voice in English. Check out this link to an article titled 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice by Geoffrey K. Pullum : he shreds The Elements of Style. I found this on a site called Grammar Girl while looking for advice about one of my pet peeves, the so-called double genitive (look it up). http://chronicle.com/article/… If the “experts” can’t agree, where does that leave the rest of us? I hope it leaves us a lot more tolerant of other people’s usage. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/