quote:
Originally posted by ottisgrey
Mo-setera ( mo of a million names )
ottis
I have nothing against newbies and as a sign of that, I'll help you a bit too since you seem to be a newbie to the English language...
Et cetera NOT Et-setera, usually abbreviated to etc. (archaic abbreviations include &/c., &c., and &ca.) is Latin for "and the others." "Et" means "and"; "cetera" means literally "other things." It is often used to represent the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions.
For example: We need a lot of fruit: apples, bananas, oranges, etc.
(An error would be using "and etc.," which is redundant — "and and the others".)
The abbreviated versions should always be followed by a full stop (period), and it is customary, even in British English where the serial comma is typically not used, that etc. always be preceded by a comma.
Ottis, but even then it's still wrong...
In lists of persons, et al. is used in place of etc. (an abbreviation of et alii, meaning "and others"). Less common is the use of et al. in lists of places (where it abbreviates et alibi, meaning "and elsewhere".)
So the correct version would be: Mo et al. (no hyphens either)
Well, now that we got this out of our way, I would just like to raise the following thought:
Ottisgrey is a user from WA, with only 36 posts, knows what goes on at Sydney's Botany Bay and hides behind a fake name... How likely is it that he or she has many other usernames???? So shouldn't it be
Ottisgrey (I'm scared and need to hide behind a fake username) at al.Are we done here???
I'm off to go kiting... No need to thank me!!!
