h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's always quicker at the time I log on - never more than 30 of us.
When I asked my students what they thought the most difficult part of English grammar, none of them voted for articles or phrasal verbs. The majority thought negative prefixes (that are exercising you/us at present) the worst. It's therefore (another!) area I'm trying to write up. I think re- can be stuck in front of any verb to mean "do it again" but retire and retreat, for example, came from different roots, where the re was part of the original verb.So, how do you explain this to Chinese students who don't have other European languages?

alight

Sign seen on transport in England: In the event of fire, please alight.

In the days when you could, British trains used to carry a notice saying "Do not alight from moving train"
You disembark from ships, alight from trains. How do you get out of a plane?

You 'board' a plane to get on it (at least at airports etc.) but I'm not sure how you get off without sliding down the emergency chute.
If it's a small and/or old plane, you usually climb or clamber in.
Horse transport = mount and dismount
I think perhaps the train words for geting on and off (along with many others) are leftovers from the horse and carriage days ...

In a similar vein, you (well at least I) get on a bus and on a train, but you get in a car. You can, I suppose, get in a bus and/or train, but you don't get on a car. Eh.

Because I can now

How you leave an airplane depends on the airline. For posh ones like Aer Lingus you disembark, but on Ryanair you just leave.

This comes from the stewardess' anouncement that "Passengers should ensure they have all their handbaggage before [disembarking |leaving the aircraft]".

deplane?
I agree about horse terms transferring to trains - what happened on the canals?- which were earlier than trains. I know the people who dug them were navigators- hence navvies

Has anyone noticed that they never say "Please mind the gap" when getting off a plane (as they do on the trains & Tube in the UK), even though the gap is (potentially) 35,000 feet.
The verb 'to mind' in this context has always struck me as odd ... it seems to mean 'be careful of' or 'look out for' ... 'Please Mind The Doors' as seen on the Tube ... I always get off whatch the doors very carefully in case they do something unexpected.

"We will be held here in platform while the train ahead of us detrains at Liverpool Street" (Verbatim annoucement)

How does a train 'detrain'. If it can and does, that implies you can train a train. Or, perhaps, the opposite is entrain?

That reminds me;
I was recently best man at a wedding. I was contacted by my parents, as they wished to give the Bride and Groom a "minding". I was a wee bit worried, as I thought physical harm might be involved but it turned out that they only wished to give them a gift. Presumably (or is that assumably ) to show that they remembered (held in the mind) the couple. I have never heard of "minding" used as a noun at any other time. Is this just a West of Scotland oddity, or more widespread?

Canals - the people who dug the navigations might well have ended up being the navigators (navvies).

Doors - Warning the door is alarmed. Usually on emergency exits, but I wonder what has been done to alarm them

That usage is not familiar. Have noticed a resurgance of the "I am minded...." format, meaning 'I am of a mind to...' It seems to come in and out of fashion, depending perhaps on how many Scots are around among the movers and shakers. Also, increasing English use of 'outwith'.

Detraining: Occurs on the Wrexham to London line, at Crewe, I think it's where you take an engine off the front of the train and put a new one on (electric trains don't run well without wires..., so they changed to Diesel.)

I think.

Word going out of use: inflammable [meaning burns like hell]. Compare to insane [not sane], indigestion [caused by not digesting]... inflammable could be seen to mean not flammable.... so only flammable and non- or un-flammable are used nowadays.

That usage of minding puts me in mind of the similar usage of remember, where someone might say "remember me to person X" meaning "say hello to X for me."

The original Apple 2 computer had a power light which was right beside the keyboard and looked like a key. The manual said "The Power On indicator is not a button and cannot be depressed". Tell that to Marvin!

The reminds me.

Why do people say "don't pretend that you know me" when they mean "pretend that you don't know me"?

(sorry for being late again)

I think 'stagger' is suitable for getting off planes.

Now, let's go looking for a 'stagger' smiley...

Don't forget the colloquial use of "stagger" as a noun; e.g. "Keith is getting married at the weekend, so we're all going to his stagger tonight!"

I assume the derivation is from "stag night", although if it was sponsored the derivation might seem more ambiguous. ("Sponsored stagger")

Please would someone clever explain clearly and concisely the correct and proper usage for amongst and among, or are they totally interchangeable and the former a mere affectation.