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Using of use and usage :)



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
I'm leaving tomorrow. vs. I'm going to leave tomorrow | By turns (I use the codes by turns)
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Using of use and usage :) #1 (permalink) Wed Sep 06, 2006 15:54 pm   Using of use and usage :)
 

Hi

Quote:
1. Hence the need to revise dictionaries and grammars as certain particularities of use become generalized as usage.

2. Social commentators noted, in a transatlantic usage,…

3. It has a use.

4. The idea of using roads for local distribution and the railways for the long-distance trunk haul is as old as the railways themselves.

(all examples are taken from BNC)

Could you explain:
1) when usage and use should be used :) with (indefinite) article? (as in (2) and (3)),

2) more clearly - the difference between use and usage when they are used without article, (1),

(I also wanted to ask about the difference between use of and using (when the latter/gerund is used as a noun) - but have understood it while writing a question 3) about (4) :)).
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Using of use and usage :) #2 (permalink) Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:22 am   Using of use and usage :)
 

.
1) when usage and use should be used with (indefinite) article? (as in (2) and (3)) -- As with other nouns that can be countable or uncountable, use the indefinite article when it is an unspecific or non-previously-mentioned, etc, countable noun.

2) more clearly - the difference between use and usage when they are used without article, (1)-- the difference is not related to countability. In language, usage is established use; use is pragmatic usage. Actually, however, they are cavalierly mixed by most writers (including me).
.
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Remission :) #3 (permalink) Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:41 am   Remission :)
 

Mister Micawber wrote:
Actually, however, they are cavalierly mixed by most writers (including me).

This means that I, not being a mad linguist nor even an English-Writer-with-a-Capital-Letter, don't need to know that difference at all. Actually.
:)

Thank you, Mister Micawber.
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