>>>>"chalk it up to ..."
>>>
>>>I figured you'll know that region of the grammar far better than I would :).
>>
>>Just trying to help with your knowledge opf idiomatic English.
>
>As long as the "ma" is in the adjective.

DOES NOT COMPUTE

>
>> You remind me sometimes of the Israeli agent in NCIS :-)
>
>Only in that respect. The rest of her (and the series) is just too macho/tough/JHarvey. Without her linguistic escapades and the two geeks on duty, it wouldn't be worth watching. BTW, I skipped the latest accidentally and I don't care if I catch a rerun or not.

It was better withe the previous girl, who died. Abbie's a good character though.

>
>>Talking of which, I've never been able to figure why we say "later on" rather than just "later", or "earlier on".
>
>Take "climb" (verb). Does it imply direction? Take "He climbed a mountain" - it seems to imply "up", right? So "climb" means "go up something"... unless it's "climb down".

That's right - it means "go up" unless you say "climb down". of course you can always ascend or descend (whereas in French Ascendre and Descendre also mean "to go out (for the night)" and "to go home (after a night out)". So Englsh hasn't ALL the faults.

>
>Here's something you probably took for granted: verb "to sell". Is it transitive, reflexive, neither, or all of that?
>

Back to the old context debate again. I've never been confused with its use.

>>Why on high-brow radio talk shows, the English cogniscienti always reply "Absolutely" when a yes/no answer is illicited. They also start their spiel with "I mean ..." too, when asked to come in to the confab. (How can they be explaining what they mean when they haven't already said something?)
>
>I've made great progress in my control of reflexes. Nowadays, when someone says "you know what I mean", I don't puke. I just say "No, I don't. But you seem capable of speaking, you can tell me".

And even if you say yes, how can they be sure that you do?