>>>>I'm not sure HOW they teach English in schools nowadays but I went to a grammar school where they were sticklers. However, it was only when I was learning French that I realised how slack English is, and how precise you need to be in other languages.
>
>Which is one of the reasons why french is, or at least used to be, the preferred language for diplomats, french gives less room for misunderstandings or misinterpretations.

i.e. it was the "Lingua Franca" of Europe. (Funny using latin to say French)
Now English is the Lingua Franca, so now we use latin to express the name of another language, whilst meanng a third. :-)

>
>In history at school we learnt about a king, or was he a general or something, who got the message from a messenger that his rival or enemy was captured. His message back was "Skyt ham ikke vent til jeg kommer" ("Shoot him not wait until I return"). Since he had forgotten a komma, it was impossible do understand what he ment. Either "Don't shoot him, wait until I return", or "Shoot him, don't wait until I return". In most other languages, the message would be clear even without the komma.

In UK there is a book that has made its author a millionaire, to do with English grammar and punctuation. It's called "Eats, shoots and leaves". It takes its name from an erroneous sentence that the author saw, regarding pandas, something like:

"The panda, eats, shoots and leaves" The addition of that one comma changed the panda from a gentle vegitarian to a homicidal maniac!
>>A score is 20. In archaic English we can say "three score years and ten" (age Man reaches in the bible), so it's likey that "three score years and nineteen" would have been said, and many people still today say like, "five and twenty" for 25
>
>Yes, it's a little bit like danish counting, but they have a twist to it. Sixty is "tress" meaning three sness, a sness is 20. Eighty is "firs", meaning four sness. But fifty, seventy and ninety are "halv-tress", "halv-firs" and "halv-fems" respectively. "Halv-tress" (fifty) means three sness, only that the last sness is half. For all people, except for the danes themselves, danish counting is very confusing, and you have to be completely sober to understand it. Hmm, that may explain why the waiters in Denmark always smile to me. In stead of admitting that I don't have a clue about how much I shall pay, I maybe give them too much tips. Or they give me too little change back. I'll try to be more alter the next time I go there!

It's to be hoped that they at least put the numerals on their coins then, or they could use this to REALLY hike up the charge, post-Euro (I assume they use Euros?)